Recent Posts

2276

Living Room / Re: Should I add ads to my website?

« Last post by app103 on February 28, 2011, 06:17 PM »

Can I make a recommendation?

If you are going to put ads on your site, use something you have full control over, works well with web comics, and you will feel good about displaying.

Don't use Adsense, which relies on a fair amount of text to display anything relevant and has been a poor performer for web comics. You will end up with all the trash ads that don't pay well on clicks, stuff nobody would want to click, for some of the sleaziest sites on the internet. That is pretty much how it performs on a web comic site.

Try out Project Wonderful. Web comics were among the first to embrace that ad network, it doesn't rely on text. You will have full control over the ads that run, before they run, if you want it. The ads you are likely to see displayed are mostly for other web comics, blogs, and games. It's pay per day advertising rather than pay per click.

I think you'd enjoy it and even maybe look at it as a site feature, rather than the average run of the mill ads.

2277

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

« Last post by app103 on February 28, 2011, 09:46 AM »

lotusrootstarch, I think you want us to know who you are, and it wouldn't be hard for anyone to figure it out if you are being truthful about being a donating member under your other forum name,  that has participated in the first NANY, and multiple NANYs.

There are only 2 names on that very short list, and I think it would be safe to say you are not wraith808.  

2278

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

« Last post by app103 on February 28, 2011, 06:57 AM »

Hehehe I'm here merely to point out the problems, look at all the responses I got here -- all pointing finger directly at me, and it's never even about me, it's about problems.

So app you made me feel very bad about myself under this username... alright I'm defeated... so what? It doesn't fix any problems I mentioned.

Ouch you guys really have no idea... 'nuff said. best of luck. cheers.  

-lotusrootstarch (February 28, 2011, 06:13 AM)

Defeated? Sorry, that wasn't my intention...just pointing out the most effective way to get things done around here, a way that works much better than complaining. It was meant to be a guide, not a baseball bat upside your head.

I hope you haven't decided to leave. I sincerely meant what I said and would love for you to volunteer to write a major review. You seem to have a strong interest in that area of the site and combined with a commitment to do the hard work and see it through, that's all you really need.

I'd be willing to help in any way that I can (except for writing that big review, of course...too much work for me, plus I am going to have my hands full for a long time with what I already volunteered to do for the software section)

So, how about it? Let's fix these problems. If you have any trouble coming up with a category to review, I am sure the community here would love to help with some ideas. All you have to do is ask. 

2279

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

« Last post by app103 on February 28, 2011, 04:17 AM »

Most of the entries in the reviews section are way outdated, except for the first entry which was posted in 2006, the rest were all posted in or before 2007! What happened in the last 4 years in this section?

-lotusrootstarch (February 27, 2011, 09:36 PM)

This is a community driven site, and everything is provided by unpaid volunteer members of this community. If you, a member of this community, is going to complain, you should be prepared to also be part of that solution.

Therefore, I propose you volunteer to write a major shoot-out review, instead of just complaining that someone else hasn't volunteered to do one in quite awhile.

When you are finished, you can then volunteer to contact all your big name A-list blogger friends and see if you can get them interested enough in it to write about it. Don't have any A-list blogger friends? Well, I guess you'll have to figure out how to make some.

Then you can volunteer to hit the major social networks and post about it, reaching out to the masses on Digg, Mixx, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, StumbleUpon, etc.

Then you can contact all the developers of the apps you reviewed and ask them if they would be interested in giving discounts to DC members, and maybe donate a few copies for a giveaway drawing.

If you run into any problems that you think the community can provide assistance with, make a post and ask for some help. (I'll be willing to help by contacting some of the bloggers I know, once you have finished your big review, I'll also vote it up on both Mixx and Digg, and give you a post or like on friendfeed, a tweet or retweet on twitter, and a thumbs up on StumbleUpon)

When you are finished with all that, you can work on your next complaint.

See, this is what people in this community do when they think something should be done...we shut up, roll up our sleeves and do it, instead of complaining that someone else won't volunteer to do it for us.

And an annual fundraiser is justified, as long as there are bills that need to be paid. To say we shouldn't have one is saying we should shut down the site and go away, because if we don't pay the bills, the hosting company will pull the plug on us and that is exactly what will happen to this site....it will go away. Is that what you want?

2280

Living Room / Re: Gmail accidentally resets some accounts

« Last post by app103 on February 28, 2011, 03:41 AM »

Anyone got a good suggestion on how to do it - quick and easily.

-nudone (February 28, 2011, 03:30 AM)

I have been using GMail Backup for quite awhile. Just fill out the info in it and set the location of the folder where you want it to store the backups. It will download everything as .eml files, which can be opened in most popular desktop email apps.

Right now the site is unreachable, spits back a page full of errors. I suppose their server is being hit pretty hard with all the publicity and worry. Might have to give it a few days till you can reach the site and download the app.

2281

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2011, 03:21 PM »

Also a thought, I would consider OpenCandy to be a lot less evil than the developers who bundle it with their software.

-Eóin (February 26, 2011, 02:20 PM)

OC's sales pitch to developers is pretty slick, and with the aid of various media outlets calling them the "good guys" it would be very easy for a naive developer to fall for it, thinking it's much more benign than most other adware. OC is an experienced spyware company (the same guys behind the infamous DivX spyware), a predator feeding off freeware and the open source community.

2282

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2011, 02:53 PM »

the OC junk being placed on your hard drive and in your registry

-app103 (February 26, 2011, 02:12 PM)

@April - is there a manifest for what OC installs available anywhere? I've got some software audits coming up. Be interesting to check and see how widespread the actual deployment is. I'm sure my clients would be interested too.

-40hz (February 26, 2011, 02:17 PM)

Each install leaves an OpenCandy folder containing a text file and OCSetupHlp.dll, usually within that application's folder. (there can be multiples of these if the user has installed more than one OC powered app and the folder may be elsewhere, separate from the app that installed it, if it was from an older installer)

Additionally, the registry entries locations vary, depending on where the developer decided to put them...somewhere within their own app's key.

Some examples from Microsoft's site:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\ADatumCorporation\OpenCandy
HKLM\SOFTWARE\ADatumCorporation\OpenCandy\Completed
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ADatumCorporation\OpenCandy
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ADatumCorporation\OpenCandy\Completed

A developer could also choose to list them under his own app's keys without any mention of OpenCandy.

The actual keys would be listed as "OCN" and "VOCV"

So, you would have to scan all files & folders on a user's machine for an "OpenCandy" folder and/or "OCSetupHlp.dll"...then scan registry for "OpenCandy", "OCN" and "VOCV".

Removal of all or any of these may cause an error if you later decide to uninstall the application that put them there.

Additionally, if you know there is OpenCandy in an installer before you run it, you can use the /nocandy flag when running it to avoid seeing the ads. I do not know for sure if this also prevents the tracking and crap on the hard drive & registry, though.

2283

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2011, 02:12 PM »

As I was saying at the beginning, having an opt-out policy is not hiding it.  If it is truly hidden, then that's a different story.  But from the times I've seen OC, it's been pretty obvious.  In the case that it's hidden, then it falls into the category of malicious, IMO.

To re-state, so it's clear.  If it's an opt-out dialog during the installer (and even in subsequent updates) then it's not hidden.

-wraith808 (February 26, 2011, 01:54 PM)

When you download and run an OC powered installer, there are 3 things you could potentially install on your computer:

1. The application you intended to install (this is not hidden)
2. The recommended software (opt-in or opt-out, this is not hidden either)
3. OpenCandy itself, which you have to be a power user that knows the command line flags and knows OC is in the installer, before running it, in order to avoid being assigned a unique tracking ID and the OC junk being placed on your hard drive and in your registry. There is NO check box to opt out! Users are not well informed about this tracking garbage, despite OC "requiring" developers to inform users. They only have to mention OC somewhere on their own site. They do not mention it on download sites. So, you could download an app from Softpedia and not be informed there is OC in it, end up running it, and even when you opt out of the recommended additional software, you still get included in OC's tracking and profiling, whether you want to or not.

2284

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2011, 01:29 PM »

Note: I am not condoning the practice.  I'm just saying that it's not hidden.  And clearly it's not, IMO.

-wraith808 (February 26, 2011, 01:23 PM)

When you download an install an application, you expect to only get the application you intend to install.

Then along comes this other app you have to opt out of installing...and you go ahead and do that.

Then you find out that OpenCandy itself is leaving stuff on your hard drive and in your registry and they have assigned your computer a unique ID and they are building a profile on you. Where was the check box to opt out of that? That is what is hidden, and it happens no matter if you opt in or opt out of the additional software.

2285

General Software Discussion / Re: What the hell is OpenCandy?

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2011, 09:14 AM »

We were having an interesting discussion the other day in the DC IRC channel about this spike in traffic on my blog, all related to a single article I wrote about it almost 2 years ago.



And judging from some of the comments I have been getting, it seems as though some people are having trouble figuring out how OpenCandy ended up on their computer.

A lot seems to have happened in the last 2 years, including OpenCandy switching from opt-in to opt-out (and blaming developers for it) and Microsoft describing the privacy risks as very similar to a lot of what I described in this post.

2286

Site/Forum Features / Re: RSS Feeds for DonationCoder.com and this Forum

« Last post by app103 on February 26, 2011, 04:03 AM »

hello~~^&^
no``speak english....
에고... 영어를 모르니 뭐라고 해야하는지 모르겠네.....

-nalgamja (February 26, 2011, 03:59 AM)

혹시 한국사람없소~~!!

-nalgamja (February 26, 2011, 04:01 AM)

Anyone here speak Korean?

2287

Living Room / Re: A point of grammar

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 05:26 PM »

Don't know if I read it here on DoCo, but here goes:

Perl, the only language that looks the same before and after encryption...

-Shades (February 25, 2011, 04:57 PM)

I always thought it looked like an alien chicken walked across the screen.

alien chicken....

hmmm....



He's got the right feet for it. 

2288

General Software Discussion / Re: Most Pirated Software?

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 09:49 AM »

you think DC, all 200000+ members, is isolated and pure. We disagree.

-Bamse (February 25, 2011, 09:40 AM)

I don't recall ever saying that. Seems you are disagreeing with your own ideas of what people are, since they certainly aren't mine.

2289

General Software Discussion / Re: Most Pirated Software?

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 08:31 AM »

Well irc comforting peace and consensus on piracy probably is nice to experience. Does it take a whole 5 secs to reach agreement? Good for the group, useless in coming up with ideas on how to monetize/convert piracy

-Bamse (February 25, 2011, 07:26 AM)

Huh? I was referring to the DC IRC channel, where I have come to know a number of people quite personally, rather than being limited to general software discussions on the forum. I don't know what you are referring to.

2290

General Software Discussion / Re: a replacement for Free Studio Manager

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 07:06 AM »

Free youtube downloader plugin for firefox (downloads all sorts of other media files from other sites, as well)

https://addons.mozil...ideo-downloadhelper/

It also has a file converter, but that part of it isn't free.


Free file format converter: Super
(please be aware it comes with OpenCandy, which is flagged by some anti-virus software as adware)

As far as burning software, you are on your own or maybe someone else can suggest something, since what I use isn't freeware and I don't know any good freeware burning apps.

2291

Living Room / Re: Show us your desktop

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 07:02 AM »

Win + M will make it Magically appear. 

-app103 (February 24, 2011, 06:43 PM)

No-no-no! Use Win + D, as Win-d-ows. Use it twice.

-DJ Azero (February 25, 2011, 06:56 AM)

Win+M minimizes everything that can be minimized, without affecting the z-order of desktop widgets.

Win+D changes the z-order and makes the desktop topmost, which messes up all my desktop widgets, pushing them below the desktop (this can even make some of them, like Yahoo Widgets, crash)

2292

Official Announcements / Re: March 2011 DonationCoder.com Fundraiser Celebration -- Pledges?

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 05:44 AM »

Now, back to the topic...

If we reach the fundraiser goal, I pledge to create a searchable "mini-site" to categorically catalog and tag every application we offer...all the major apps, all the coding snacks, all the NANY apps...all of it.

It will be a huge time consuming task and once I get started I will probably need the help and cooperation of many of the coders here, answering questions about their apps. I will probably also need a few dedicated volunteers to help maintain it, adding new apps as they are made.

I also wouldn't want to start it till I see the new front page design, live.

2293

Official Announcements / Re: March 2011 DonationCoder.com Fundraiser Celebration -- Pledges?

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 05:26 AM »

I'll bet he'll have a strong feeling of "isn't that the same old sh*?".

-lotusrootstarch (February 25, 2011, 04:59 AM)

Funny you should say that because that's usually my thoughts when reading your posts.

One of your complaints is that there has not been any noticeable additions to the number of active members of the site.

How would you propose to fix that?

Should we take the donations people make and employ paid posters that care nothing about the site to be those new active members you want so badly?

Or maybe perhaps you could become an active member, instead of sitting on the sidelines waiting for the rare occasion where you can pop up and complain about the site and its lack of new active members. With only 28 posts, 25% of which are in this thread, you haven't exactly done much for the community that you claim can do better. This community can do nothing without its members taking an active part in shaping the direction it goes.

Instead of just occasionally pointing out what you perceive to be problems, you can be part of the solution. Instead of sitting in your lawn chair pointing out the flaws, roll up your sleeves and get to work.

2294

General Software Discussion / Re: Most Pirated Software?

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 03:10 AM »

If you believe in the black and white way of looking at this yes. But it was more wondering about your choice of words than concluding anything. Why is it relevant to say these are good people? and what has Mousers influence to do with anything? He has nothing to do with piracy, neither has DC as such. Just part of the general user base Not special I don't think.

-Bamse (February 25, 2011, 02:43 AM)

You don't hang out in the IRC channel as much as some of us do, so you probably wouldn't understand why I said what I said in the way I said it.

Not special I don't think.

That's where you are wrong...so very wrong.

2295

General Software Discussion / Re: Most Pirated Software?

« Last post by app103 on February 25, 2011, 02:39 AM »

Good for you app103 and your transformation to join the good people lead by Mouser - as opposed to the evil ones DC as a whole don't like. It is that black and white view I object to and also think is out of touch with reality, DC included.

-Bamse (February 25, 2011, 02:08 AM)

Did you just call me out of touch with reality? 

2296

Living Room / Re: Show us your desktop

« Last post by app103 on February 24, 2011, 06:43 PM »

I can't find my Desktop...

-Stoic Joker (February 24, 2011, 06:40 PM)

Win + M will make it Magically appear. 

2297

General Software Discussion / Re: webpage change notifier

« Last post by app103 on February 24, 2011, 03:25 PM »

Newzie RSS reader can monitor pages that don't have feeds and report on changes...and it's free.

I don't think you can set it for specific areas, but it will allow you to compare old to new version and show you what changed.

2298

Living Room / Re: Recommendation for removing eye flash

« Last post by app103 on February 24, 2011, 03:16 PM »

Actually, my daughter seems to think the cat eye one looks really weird. She says it would be perfect for our cat, which always has that wide eyed scared look. 

2299

Living Room / Re: Recommendation for removing eye flash

« Last post by app103 on February 24, 2011, 03:06 PM »

I used Paintshop Pro 7's red-eye removal tool, which actually just creates a new pupil & iris and sets it over the original. It has only 3 choices for animal eyes, only one of them being a cat.

This was the result:



Then I went and did it again, but this time selecting a "human eye", in the color green, and chose a shade of green from their eye palette.

This was the result:



Beyond this, I do not know how to fix your image. I can redo the "human eye" if you like the look but the color is wrong.

2300

Living Room / Re: Recommendation for removing eye flash

« Last post by app103 on February 24, 2011, 02:38 PM »

What color are your cat's eyes?