Recent Posts

23251

C / C++ / Re: Managing Large code with Object Oriented Programming

« Last post by mouser on May 30, 2008, 05:03 AM »

You are well on your way to mastering it -- you've made the first few steps by coming to grips with the fact that knowing the syntax of a programming language is just the very initial step.

The most important thing is to do what you are doing: PRACTICE.

Only by writing code are you really going to get comfortable and efficient with OOP concepts.  The good news is that OOP is very well suited to large projects so you are on a good path.  You just need to get more comfortable with the concepts and practice.

As for books, there are a couple: Code Complete might be good (see this thread)

Maybe try "http://Thinking in C++" or another C++ book that stresses OOP concepts.

23252

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Robokill

« Last post by mouser on May 30, 2008, 04:56 AM »

I was so impressed with the coding of this game that i went looking for more info on the developer.  Found this little interview: http://www.gamestren...el-Reitzenstein.html

23253

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Robokill

« Last post by mouser on May 30, 2008, 04:51 AM »

I have to warn anyone considering purchasing the $10 full version of this game:

Beware.  The full version has some big levels, with lots of cool new weapons and enemies.  It's quite addictive and will eat up a good chunk of your time.  So if you have a lot of work to accomplish, please thing twice! 

In all seriousness, as someone who is not all that fond in general of these kinds of shooters.. I have to say this is one of the most impressive, fun, addictive, balanced, playable shooters i have ever played.

23254

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Farr Alias: nircmd alias

« Last post by mouser on May 30, 2008, 02:37 AM »

good work and welcome to the FARR customization club 

23255

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Farr Alias: nircmd alias

« Last post by mouser on May 30, 2008, 02:06 AM »

it seems to be missing a command to put the computer in Hibernate (which I use far more often.) Is there any way for me to add that myself?

Yes.

This alias pack uses the commandline tool NirCmd from Nirsoft.
That tool does have support for sending the computer into hibernate mode.

So, all you need to do is add a new alias to the pack which calls NirCmd with commandline parameter to hibernate.

See if you can figure out how to do that yourself, since it would be a good learning experience -- if you can't, come back and we will help.

(ps. one way to make your life easier is to move the alias pack from the AliasGroups/Installed to AliasGroups/MyCustom while you edit it since that will allow you to edit it from within FARR).

And if you figure it out, please share it so we can add the new hibernation alias to the official alias pack. 

23256

Living Room / Re: flash-card programs to learn a new (human) language. What's the best?

« Last post by mouser on May 30, 2008, 12:48 AM »

This is a cool thread.  Thanks especially to tamasd for the thoughtful comparison.

23257

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Robokill

« Last post by mouser on May 30, 2008, 12:47 AM »

Long review at JayIsGames.com: http://jayisgames.co...2008/05/robokill.php

ps.
this is a pretty long flash game, but after you play through the first mission (several stages long), the further missions are locked unless you pay $10 to unlock the rest.  personally i was so impressed by the game and the length of the free mission (which is longer than i play most flash games anyway), that i decided to send them $10 to show my appreciation.

23258

Living Room / Re: Flash Game of the Week: Robokill

« Last post by mouser on May 29, 2008, 11:28 PM »

you can shoot and destroy the spawner objects.

23259

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Farr Alias: nircmd alias

« Last post by mouser on May 29, 2008, 04:16 PM »

in reality it will work in the Plugins directory too, but the proper place for it is as a subdirectory of AliasGroups/Installed.

23260

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Farr Alias: nircmd alias

« Last post by mouser on May 29, 2008, 03:34 PM »

Not in the plugin directory, in the Aliases/Installed directory.

23261

Living Room / Flash Game of the Week: Robokill

« Last post by mouser on May 29, 2008, 03:46 AM »

This has to be one of the slickest and most polished flash shooter games I've seen.  It's extremely well done, and highly playable.  Reminiscent of the arcade game Robotron, but with greater depth.

http://www.rocksolid....com/games/robokill/

from http://flash.plasticthinking.org/

23262

General Software Discussion / ghacks round-up: Battle of the Software Updaters

« Last post by mouser on May 29, 2008, 02:37 AM »

Well here's a software round up that was long overdue, and Martin over at ghacks does a nice job with it.

Keeping the installed software on your computer up to date can be a time consuming task considering that users tend to have 100+ applications installed on their computers at the same time. To make matters worse there is no general way - like in Linux - to update your applications. Some offer build in update notifications but most do not have this feature.

The only way was until recently to visit the websites that host the applications manually and check for new versions. Some offered mailing lists or RSS feeds which could be used to stay informed without visiting the website right away.

So called Software Updaters could be the solution. There are actually quite a few programs out there that scan your computer for applications and display a list of outdated ones after the scan. But which one finds the most applications, which has the database that is updated most frequently and which actually works?

That’s what I’m going to find out today with the battle of the software updaters. The applications that I tried are:

• AppGet
• Appupdater
• File Hippo Update Checker
• Secunia Personal Software Inspector
• Sumo
• Update Star

http://www.ghacks.ne...e-software-updaters/

23263

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SnapSuite program family/Free online computer help

« Last post by mouser on May 29, 2008, 12:01 AM »

When it comes to website design, I think the simpler and more standard the look, the better.  just my 2 cents.

23264

Find And Run Robot / Re: Alias sharing

« Last post by mouser on May 28, 2008, 02:11 PM »

wonderful.  thank you for sharing that.  with icons and everything, very cool. 

Two small optional things:

• Your readme says to unpack in the AliasGroups\MyCustom folder.  I think the best practice is for the people who create the alias groups to keep them in their MyCustom subfolder, but for all other people to put them in the AliasGroups\Installed subfolder.  The idea being that the MyCustom is for your own created alias files that you want complete control over and will never update from the web, wheras the Installed subfolder is for an alias pack you expect might be upgraded by a new release from the author.  This is assumed by FARR which will not let you edit aliases in the Installed subdirectory (other than to disable them).  Hope the idea is clear now, i know it's a bit confusing.
• If you would like webspace to host the alias pack and your own little page on it and other stuff just ask.  You could then make a .dcupdate file for this alias pack so you could automatically provide updated versions when you wanted.  Just a idea.

ps. Welcome to the site, great first post 

23265

Living Room / Battle of the 6 Online Malware (AntiVirus) File Scanners

« Last post by mouser on May 28, 2008, 12:52 PM »

Over at the Raymond.CC blog there is a nice comparison today of 6 different online antivirus scanners.

We've discussed most of these sites before on DonationCoder.  You might be thinking to yourself "I already have an antivirus tool installed -- why do I need a slow online version?".

The answer is simple: These online sites will scan a submitted file using a large number of different commercial antivirus engines.  This is exactly what you want to do if you need to figure out if a virus alarm is real or just a false positive overreaction by your specific antivirus tool.  This happens quite frequently, and is especially important if you are a software author.  These tools are the best way to find out if there is a consensus among antivirus engines about a file.

I will compare the number of antivirus engines used to scan an uploaded file, time taken to upload and scan, extra file upload methods, file information, upload progress meter and report page. I will also test the accuracy of the antivirus engines by scanning it with a detected version of Bifrost trojan.

http://www.raymond.c...lware-file-scanners/

23266

Living Room / Re: It is pitch dark...

« Last post by mouser on May 28, 2008, 12:36 PM »

My favorite NerdCore rapper has been written about several times on DC: MC Chris.
Check out "Fett's Vett" about star wars character Boba Fett, I've still not heard anything better in this genre.

Not quite nerdcore but close, and not to be missed: The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destinty.

23267

General Software Discussion / Re: Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 10:56 PM »

Where do you store the pogo stick?

yeah it does require a chair or ladder to get into those cabinets, but they are mainly for storage so it's ok.

yeah i used a router and dowels this time.  the router caused about a 4 inch high layer of wood shavings on the floor.  the dowels are hard to get straight with a non-table-mounted drill, even with a dowel jig, that was the most troublesome part.

by the way my cordless set includes a cordless circular saw -- works great, highly recommended.  less cumbersome than corded one and works fine on regular 2x lumber and plywood.

23268

General Software Discussion / Re: Software for planning wood bookcases/cabinets/tables etc?

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 09:36 PM »

I mean to post this a while ago, my recent project to add an upper layer of cabinets in my kitchen, for some storage space and space for cookbooks:







ps. making (panel) doors is not as easy as the rest of the skills i've learned.. hard to make them straight.

23269

Living Room / Re: It is pitch dark...

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 03:10 PM »

fun 

23270

Living Room / New Adobe Flash Player Security Exploit Reported Today (tuesday may 27)

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 03:07 PM »

This is a good reason to install a firefox extension that blocks Flash movies unless you specifically whitelist the website.  For example: NoScript or FlashBlock.

Exploits target new Adobe Flash bug

Symantec on Tuesday revealed that the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player contains an unpatched vulnerability that is being actively exploited.

http://www.scmagazin...-bug/article/110585/

23271

Screenshot Captor / Re: NOD32 False Positive

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 01:44 PM »

I don't know about Adobe, but I did get a false positive nod32 alert for thebat.

23272

Screenshot Captor / Re: NOD32 False Positive

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 11:46 AM »

Thanks for the report Mithias.  Yet another false positive.. at least this time it seems to have included a ton of other valid applications so will be fixed quickly.. I'm surprised that Eset (makers of Nod32) were so sloppy this time, usually they are pretty reliable.  What's most surprising is that these top antivirus companies are not regularly testing the new signatures against a large collection of known good programs before releasing them -- surely if they had done that they would have seen the problem before they released the new update.

23273

Find And Run Robot / Re: is it possible to search the search history ?

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 10:31 AM »

right now it's not possible but i've been meaning to implement this so that one can filter any of the special commands like: search history list, plugin list, launch history list.

23274

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

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 09:34 AM »

Hi psionics, nice to see you posting here.

Let's try to keep the trend going and keep this thread alive -- anyone reading this who hasn't posted yet, tell us a bit about yourself.

23275

Find And Run Robot / Re: Urgent security notice for all FARR plugin users

« Last post by mouser on May 27, 2008, 03:04 AM »

ps another question: If 3 plugin use 3 FScript.dll, then there's 3 copy of FScript.dll in memory?

i believe that is right.. until and unless ecaradec (the brilliant fscript author) decides to make a multi-script fscript version.  that's probably best discussed on the fscript thread though.