Recent Posts

2251

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by app103 on March 04, 2011, 12:53 AM »

On that topic though, one uncountable noun that has crept into being a countable noun that I find somewhat irritating is "beers". It's like "waters". It contracts "X bottles of beer" or "X glasses of beer" into "beers". It just seems like a sloppy bastardization to me.

-Renegade (March 02, 2011, 06:26 PM)

So does that mean you'd be against me buying you a beer?

-app103 (March 03, 2011, 06:12 AM)

Oddly, that seems perfectly natural. The plural contraction doesn't. So sure, you can buy me a beer anytime~!

-Renegade (March 03, 2011, 06:53 AM)

Just seems a shame that you can have a beer but not a few beers.  Doesn't sound like as much fun. 

2252

General Software Discussion / Re: Popping Downloads - iframe or meta refresh?

« Last post by app103 on March 04, 2011, 12:48 AM »

Don't use meta refresh. Some browsers and security tools block that.

2253

Living Room / Re: Show us your (physical) desktop

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2011, 01:43 PM »

jgpaiva, is that a mouse next to that tiny little keyboard...or an arch support? 

2254

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2011, 12:32 PM »

Before I started this thread my idea was to do something like I did with my book directory, using Wordpress and a DC theme that would make it blend in with the site.

The plan was to use some of the same plugins I used in my directory:

• Popularity Contest to put a list of the most popular apps at the top
• A table of contents page
• User star ratings, which would not require anyone to register on the site.

Categories going down the left, and a search box at the top, just like my book directory has.

And after the discussion of PAD files and Veign's links to PAD plugins for Wordpress, That's how I thought I was going to do this.

I did also consider using a CMS specifically designed for software download sites, and the one I found could not only serve as the software section of the site, but with some modifications to include some content from the forum (mouser's blog mod), the front page of it could very well serve as the main page of the site.

I don't think I ever mentioned how much I hate wikis. I have never seen a wiki that I didn't think was ugly or that I actually enjoyed editing. If it wasn't for the content on Wikipedia, I'd never visit their site. My last job required me to edit a Google wiki with support info, for internal use. I really hated that part of my job, almost as much as I hated making Quickbase reports.

If I had discussed this in private with Veign, instead of posting here on the forum, this project would be finished next week. You have no idea how much I am itching to do this. I was ready to stop talking and get to work 16 posts ago.

But with mouser's leaning towards Drupal, it doesn't seem as though this is going to be the job I volunteered for. Seems like it will end up being one of those "call me when you need help adding the content" projects. And while I would be content to do that if that is what would be best in the long run (I don't have a problem with stepping aside and letting better, more experienced coders perform their magic), I also know it means we will be here next year with the job still not done and this will be one of those discussions that didn't exactly go anywhere.

2255

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2011, 11:18 AM »

A few thoughts just crossed my mind with regards to theme changes (changing the look without changing the content)...

Who exactly would we be doing this for and why?

Is this for the new users we don't have yet? Or is this for the existing users?

Is this because there is something wrong with the look we have? Or is this because a few people here are bored with it? Or is this because someone thinks a site is supposed to completely change its look every few years?

Does a new user that lands on the site today know what it looked like yesterday? If they have never seen the site before, they would never know when it was last changed or what it previously looked like.

If this is for existing users...keep this in mind...

Whenever a major site changes it's look, there is always a sizable vocal group that hates it...sometimes enough to leave the site. There is no shortage of groups on facebook dedicated to hating the new change of the month (facebook changes the look of profiles more often than most people change their underwear)

The same kind of groups can be found on Friendfeed.

The same kind of haters can be found complaining about sourceforge's smurf puke.

When you change the look of a site that is the home of a community, it's like barging in to each member's home and throwing away all their furniture and replacing it with something else, and rearranging it. If what you replace it with is agreeable to the user and they perceive it as better than what they used to have, they will be happy with it maybe, but it will still leave them with a disoriented feeling for quite some time. Others will be upset that you tossed out their beautiful antique desk and replaced it with modern crap. And some will never get over losing their favorite comfy chair. Some will become detached, caring less about it, afraid of reattaching, afraid if they get used to the new look and allow themselves to like it, as soon as they do you will barge in again and do it all over again.

What I am trying to say is that changing the look of a site can be traumatic to current users and should never be done just for the sake of change, unless you really want to upset a percentage of people enough to make them want to leave and not come back.

Even a change as small as taking everything on the site that is currently blue and turning it green, could be enough to upset a sizable amount of people.

2256

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2011, 06:12 AM »

On that topic though, one uncountable noun that has crept into being a countable noun that I find somewhat irritating is "beers". It's like "waters". It contracts "X bottles of beer" or "X glasses of beer" into "beers". It just seems like a sloppy bastardization to me.

-Renegade (March 02, 2011, 06:26 PM)

So does that mean you'd be against me buying you a beer?

And just why is it <pause> that news folk feel <pause> the need to inject <pause> inappropriate pauses <pause> into almost every sentence spoken??? 

-cranioscopical (March 02, 2011, 07:04 PM)

Because they are usually reading off a teleprompter and those pauses are when it's flipping to the next frame of text. 

2257

Living Room / Re: Show us your (physical) desktop

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2011, 05:56 AM »

I have a new desk arriving soon, and it will take about 10 hrs of work to put it together. And I am going to have to dismantle and dispose of the old desk.

When all that is complete and I have everything all set up, new pics will be uploaded. 

2258

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2011, 04:25 AM »

Let's see app, how much can you sell a Toyota Camry 2000 in 2010, same config?

-lotusrootstarch (March 03, 2011, 04:02 AM)

Irrelevant, unless you are a greedy stock holder wanting this place to get spruced up with a coat of paint so it can be sold off to the highest bidder and make you rich.

But I think a better question would be...what is craigslist worth? That hasn't changed one bit in many years.

You still didn't answer my questions...

Is there anything you do like? Are we doing anything right in your eyes?

2259

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by app103 on March 03, 2011, 03:45 AM »

Let's see now, lotusrootstarch...

• You don't like the main page.
• You don't like the software and/or software page.
• You don't like the reviews page.
• You don't like the forum.
• You don't like our events.

You have found fault with all of these and want us to throw them all away and start from scratch.

Is there anything you do like? Are we doing anything right in your eyes?

2260

Living Room / Re: In Western societies, how can a man have a hyphenated name? (and why!)

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 01:07 PM »

Passing on surnames is crazy because unless you're the first generation it gets completely out of hand. If my great-grandparents did it for example I'd now have a stupid eight surnames.

After about 27ish generation peoples name would need a gigabyte of memory each 

-Eóin (March 02, 2011, 12:59 PM)

You just gave me a flashback to childhood and the story of Tikki Tikki Tembo^w.

2261

Living Room / Re: In Western societies, how can a man have a hyphenated name? (and why!)

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 09:25 AM »

Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache

-timns (March 02, 2011, 09:19 AM)

* app103 blinks  

2262

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 08:53 AM »

Gives your the benefit of both worlds; power of PAD and the ease of Wordpress.

-Veign (March 02, 2011, 08:40 AM)

Nice! That would put me back into comfortable familiar territory. 

2263

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 08:04 AM »

What's wrong with just using a wiki-style approach and simple tables?  I find tables more informative and useful than clicking 'next' a hundred times to get through a category with a bunch of entries.

-skwire (March 02, 2011, 07:59 AM)

Show me an example of you'd like to see the software directory to look like. Also, how exactly would you automate adding content to a wiki?

2264

Living Room / Re: A Stupid Reason to Hate Google Ads...

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 07:55 AM »

Well, then don't click...just do what I suggested and you won't be the bad guy, but you'll still be able to visit the advertiser's site. 

2265

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 07:07 AM »

Please take a look at this and check it out from the admin login too.

What do you guys think of ESS? (demo site)

I'd probably only have to remove and/or disable some of the unnecessary features and create a DC template skin for it. There is a free open source version of it (missing a few features but maybe a great place to start)

-app103 (March 02, 2011, 05:30 AM)

The pro version is $200, but if someone here can add the necessary extras that are missing that we would need (rss stuff, etc) to the free version, this could be really sweet.

2266

Living Room / Re: A Stupid Reason to Hate Google Ads...

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 07:02 AM »

• Right click the ad and copy the target URL.
• Paste into notepad.
• The destination URL of the ad is the text between 'adurl=' and '&'.

You can safely visit that url without triggering any google click tracking. In fact, this is how they tell you to do it if you want to safely visit a site advertised on your own site.

There is also an IE plugin that when triggered, will give you a popup containing a list of the ads that are set to be shown to your visitors, so you can safely check them all out and decide if you want to ban any of the advertisers.

2267

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 05:30 AM »

What do you guys think of ESS? (demo site)

I'd probably only have to remove and/or disable some of the unnecessary features and create a DC template skin for it. There is a free open source version of it (missing a few features but maybe a great place to start)

Hmmm... Not being able to code there is a problem. If you could find some help, I'd still recommend PADkit. I know that I have it laying around somewhere. I'll see if I can dig up a copy.

-Renegade (March 02, 2011, 04:39 AM)

With there being known security issues involved I am not sure I'd want to touch it...or use it here on DC.

Regarding:

I am also not looking for something that would require every app to have a PAD file in order to be included (most of the apps here don't have one), and some of the info I want to include about each app is not in the PAD specification and very specific to DC.

I think you're missing the point of PAD. It's an XML specification, so it's trivial to modify, and even includes an extension method. PADkit would also be easy to modify there to include DC specific items.

-Renegade (March 02, 2011, 04:39 AM)

ok, so every app that has a PAD file would then have to have 2 of them? One normal one the developer uses everywhere else, and one specific to DC? What about all the coding snacks that don't have PAD files? We would have to make ones for them?

The thing is that you could get access to a LOT of good programs, and all the information for them. The amount of work involved in creating the content would be a fraction of what it would be otherwise.

-Renegade (March 02, 2011, 04:39 AM)

I am not sure I follow you. This is only going to have DC software...not stuff from outside our community, and since most of the stuff doesn't have PAD files, we would still end up having to spend the same amount of time making those in order to have the content, even if we are not going to make them available outside the site.

Another option is to simply use any kind of directory software for some CMS, then write something to pull in content from PAD files into the database. DNN has a repository that would work. There are others too of course. Going that route, you could easily avoid any web programming as all you'd need to do is write some software in any language (we all know you can code!) that creates the correct set of SQL INSERT statements to enter the information into the database.

-Renegade (March 02, 2011, 04:39 AM)

You are seriously overestimating my coding abilities. (that's ok, everybody does) If could do half of what people think I can, I wouldn't have hung up my coding hat. If I could do half of what most coders consider easy trivial stuff, I'd have a lot more projects finished and not waiting for "someday" when I can finally figure it out. But let's not get into this because I am not in the mood to embarrass myself. 

2268

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 03:24 AM »

Renegade, thanks for the suggestion, but I think that might be way over my head. I am not a web coder and really can't handle that kind of stuff. I can handle html & css, adding plugins, ripping out or deactivating unnecessary stuff, but the moment I have to start writing any php code beyond an include, this project is unbuttered burnt toast.

Additionally, ASP has stopped distributing PADkit...

The Association of Software Professionals has temporarily stopped distributing PADKit, due to unresolved security issues, and spaming of PADKit based web sites.

A new PAD Specification and PADGen (PAD file authoring tool) have already been released.

A new PADKit may follow at a later date.

- http://pad.asp-software.org/padkit.php

I am also not looking for something that would require every app to have a PAD file in order to be included (most of the apps here don't have one), and some of the info I want to include about each app is not in the PAD specification and very specific to DC.

2269

Developer's Corner / Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 03:10 AM »

I have volunteered to create a more organized all inclusive software directory for DC. This is going to be a big time consuming project and I'd like to start a discussion concerning what CMS I should use to do this.

The only CMS I am really familiar with using is Wordpress. I have done a directory using it before and I can easily use that for this, but if anyone can think of something better, please share.

I'd like to spend the bulk of my time on this project adding listings and not fussing around with writing buggy code (If I am forced to do that I might as well scrap the whole project, so don't recommend something like Drupal)

What I am looking for is something where I can have multiple editors that can add new software listings, without opening up registration to the general public.

I would like it to be a fill-in-the-form approach with custom fields to make it easier for us to add new entries.

Must be able to handle adding stuff to main categories, as well as handling individual tags separate from the main categories, basically giving 2 lists.

Individual RSS feeds for the whole thing as well as each main category.

2270

General Software Discussion / Re: Splashtop: Linux for Windows users

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 02:17 AM »

According to their site, only a short list of HP computers are supported...nothing else, unless it was preinstalled on it when you bought it.

2271

Living Room / Re: Truly Stupid Email from Companies! Show Us Yours...

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 01:18 AM »

Wow! Was it an accidental sending? Or a "stuck" Outbox? Outlook used to do that back a ways.

-J-Mac (March 02, 2011, 01:09 AM)

It had to be an accidental sending, since I was using AOL at the time and back then they had a habit of automatically deleting anything unread in your inbox that was 30+ days old and all read mail after 7 days (had to stick it in your file cabinet if you wanted to keep it longer), and we hadn't had any snow for months.

Except for that one glitch, the mailing list service was pretty reliable...just had to remember to resubscribe every year.

2272

Living Room / Re: Truly Stupid Email from Companies! Show Us Yours...

« Last post by app103 on March 02, 2011, 01:07 AM »

I don't have a copy of the email any more...wish I did...

Back when my daughter was in middle school, I signed up for a service run by a major news radio station where they would contact you by email if the schools in your town were closed or delayed because of snow. I figured this would be a lot faster and easier than tuning in to the station and waiting for them to announce it.

One warm sunny Sunday in late spring, my daughter and I decided to go to the park for a picnic. I was checking my email before we left and received a school closing notification from this mailing list, announcing that my daughter's school would be closed that day because of snow.

Yeah, right...snow on this beautiful warm sunny day.

And the school was closed because of that and not the fact that school is always closed on Sundays?  

2273

Living Room / Re: Unsubscribe to 404

« Last post by app103 on March 01, 2011, 06:53 PM »

The unsubscribe link has to be there because of the laws in the US, but the law didn't mention anything about the page it leads to actually working, so in order to prevent you from unsubscribing, some site owners don't actually provide a real unsubscribe option.

They think they are being smart but in fact it's quite stupid, because whenever that happens, I have no alternative but to hit the spam button, which hurts them in the long run. If they didn't want me to do that they'd fix their unsubscribe so I can do it the right way.

2274

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by app103 on March 01, 2011, 05:24 PM »

licensing thingy work for them?

the license key can actually be invoked easily enough from a DLL;  but first we have to figure out to what extent we are going to continue the free license keys.  there have been a few non-mouser apps that use the license key system (Mobysaurus Thesaurus, etc.).

-mouser (March 01, 2011, 05:18 PM)

I'd consider it for my stuff, but there are 2 problems with it:

1. I haven't written anything I feel is big enough to be worthy of it.
2. I am not always as smart as people give me credit for, so figuring out how to add it to anything is still an obstacle (also the reason behind #1).

2275

General Software Discussion / Re: OS recommendations for Pent.III 128MB laptop

« Last post by app103 on March 01, 2011, 04:44 PM »

I would recommend the memory upgrade and installing XP. But I'd make a list of all the hardware and make sure there are XP drivers for everything, first.

If you decide to go with XP, use a classic theme and not the FisherPrice XP Luna crap. If it runs way too sluggish and locks up on you every few seconds, turn the desktop color settings down to medium (16 bit) and/or use a lower resolution. (I had to do this on my snail)

Do not install Win98 unless it is a last resort, again, making sure there are drivers for everything first. While Win98 drivers (and some Win95 ones) generally work well with WinME, the reverse isn't a good idea. Don't use WinME drivers with Win98.  

Another option is to make a backup of the drivers currently installed on it (you should do this any way, just in case) and consider getting a full retail copy of WinME (trust me on this one and stay away from OEM and upgrade versions). Since that is what it is currently running, you know there are drivers for it and can use the backup if you need to. If you do decide to install a copy of ME on it, contact me privately and I'll give you some tips from personal experience to make it a nicer ride, rather than the nightmares you have heard about.

Keep in mind that any 9x/ME option will greatly limit the software you can run on it, forcing you to have to hunt down and use outdated versions in a lot of cases. Because the older versions are unsupported, you will be limited to mostly old freeware and old stuff sold in boxes (you can't buy a brand new license for older stuff, as the keys provided probably won't work in older versions in most cases) This could also mean security holes and bugs that you won't be getting any fixes for, and there won't be any for the OS itself, either. This is also the case with 2k, with regards to OS updates, and some developers are dropping 2k support in their software, so as time goes on, it will suffer the same plight as 9x/ME. This is why I'd advise this only as a last resort.