Recent Posts

2451

Living Room / Re: Ask A Ninja?

« Last post by nudone on December 07, 2006, 11:16 AM »

i'm not convinced that this guy is a real ninja.

for one thing, in 'ninja question 26' he talks about a 'badger' but his description doesn't match any badger i've seen or heard about.

i'd be careful about taking advice off this guy. it's probably not a good idea to trust a ninja anyway.

2452

General Software Discussion / Re: Free Windows firewalls found better than commercial ones

« Last post by nudone on December 07, 2006, 07:49 AM »

very interesting.

i was holding back about commenting futher on the comodo firewall (i'd recently installed it after reading a discussion elsewhere on this forum) but this appears to be good place to say my piece now.

after a few hours of my machine running, all of my programs that were connected to the net would crash. so that's AOL active virus shield, spyware terminator, comodo firewall, utorrent and emule. further, the fonts would vanish from windows/buttons and a very weird black shadow appears around the text of my desktop icons.

obviously, i thought my machine must be infected with something. all scans have so far not revealed anything to be worried about. the troubling thing is that this pattern of crashing behaviour is consistent when using the comodo firewall. since uninstalling it i've not had the problem return. i have been unable to reinstall zone alarm (which i was previously using) so i reverted back to using the windows inbuilt firewall - which i think i'll have to avoid after seeing Rohit's above post.

of course, maybe it's simply the combination of programs i have running that is causing the problem - what else can i assume. but for the moment, comodo firewall sounded so good to me but it simply became a disaster.

2453

Best E-mail Client / Re: Can you spell e-mail?

« Last post by nudone on December 06, 2006, 02:50 AM »

i admire anyone that can follow the rules of english grammar. i'm pretty terrible at it myself - like most UK residents under a certain age.

but, as i understand it, isn't the english language constantly evolving and adapting, i.e. 'electronic mail' becomes 'e-mail' becomes 'email' (or, at least, will become email eventually). why not just jump on the 'email' wagon and speed up its final total acceptance?

to be honest, i'm just too lazy to type 'e-mail' (as you can see i'm too lazy to use the shift key at the beginning of a sentence) otherwise i'd probably never type 'email'.

my overall excuse for being bad with english grammar is that after reading a few books on the subject and becoming confused by the conflicting opinions of the different authors i just gave up trying.

overall, the great thing about the english language is that even when its rules are (frequently) abused, it's still quite easy to understand.

one more point about the word 'email' - i assume that eventually the word will simply become 'mail' with the 'e' disregarded as superfluous. electronic mail will be the norm and maybe 'snail-mail' will become 's-mail' or 'p-mail' (p for post or parcel).

(sorry about all that. as you can see i live in the future more than in the present.)

2454

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: more fasting: No newly installed apps till 2007; limiting internet intake to 1h/

« Last post by nudone on December 04, 2006, 06:54 AM »

i hope soon that we do discuss how successful these time management systems are. so far it sounds like mouser is the only person to have stuck at it. i hope there others that stayed committed - hopefully they will reveal themselves.

hunt me down and kill me for saying this but i do doubt the whole 'self-improvement' gurus and what they preach. i like to think that simple 'time management' can be achieved but when it's just another version of 'how to change your life in 7 days' or whatever the latest life-style book is then it's garbage.

i'm not attacking any of the time-management authors that we've discussed. i just want to raise the point that there is a difference between getting a grip on wasting time reading email and wanting to change your life. i think it might be easy to expect a bit too much from these advice systems and a bit easy to be confused about what you want out of it.

if anything, i've learned that self-control is way more taxing and complex than i was hoping it to be. oh, and look there, i see i've gone over my alloted one hour of internet use already. time to shut up.

2455

What's the Best? / Re: Anti-Virus Package

« Last post by nudone on December 03, 2006, 03:39 PM »

as i've recently installed the free AOL 'active virus shield' that uses Kaspersky (as mentioned by mwb1100 above), i can happily report that you don't have to install it's browser toolbar.

so, other than maybe receiving some spam from them in the future (they claim not to be sending any at present) i'm pleased with the product. Kaspersky is very highly rated (as is this AOL version) so it looks like a perfect program to me - almost regardless of it being free.

2456

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: more fasting: No newly installed apps till 2007; limiting internet intake to 1h/

« Last post by nudone on December 03, 2006, 03:30 PM »

i think i'll have to join you.

one hour a day messing about online (including email checking), to be done at a set time decided upon at the beginning of the day - so it could be first thing in the morning or spread out through the day for just a few minutes at a time - that's a bit of a cop out isn't it. whatever, i definitely need to limit it.

i don't install many apps these days so i don't have that problem - i just need to start using the computer as a tool again rather than a way of simply passing time.

(i never use rss feeds - i've never been a news junkie.)

anyway, good luck with it, urlfwolf.

2457

General Software Discussion / Re: Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site

« Last post by nudone on December 02, 2006, 06:26 AM »

just wanted to say thanks to KenR for mentioning the above site and to bearbottoms for creating the list of freeware.

i've decided to replace the free version of Zone Alarm for bearbottom's recommended 'comodo personal firewall'. why? well, to me it looks like 'comodo' has pretty much every option you could want - even from a paid for software firewall. i especially like the ability to set port numbers (not available in the free version of zone alarm), and the detailed information that is displayed by 'comodo' when prompting you about new in/out connections - again port and ip numbers are displayed. AND further, it had the nice feature of telling me about 'safe' connections from software i had just installed - which makes me think this is and ideal firewall to recommend to someone with very little internet 'common sense'.

i think i'm also going to ditch my current free avast virus scanner and replace it with 'antivir' as avasts interface just does my head in (stupid skins). whilst avast has been good on one occasion about detecting a virus on my system, it's missed a couple of others so 'antivir' might serve me better other than it just having a cleaner interface.

another free program mentioned by bearbottoms is 'spyware terminator' which looks as good as anything out there that you have to pay for.

i've not provided any links as you'll find them over at bearbottoms website - i really think it's a good list of apps.

2458

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Extent or rework Skrommel's LiP script also for videos

« Last post by nudone on December 01, 2006, 08:03 PM »

many thanks. now working in maxthon.

2459

Living Room / Re: Tony vs. Paul - The Coolest Stop Motion Video Ever Made

« Last post by nudone on December 01, 2006, 11:44 AM »

in this style of stop motion - has to be in the top few or, if not, at the top of the list.

i'm still waiting for someone to do a 'matrix' bullet time kind of sequence using this type of animation - maybe i've just not looked hard enough?

2460

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Extent or rework Skrommel's LiP script also for videos

« Last post by nudone on December 01, 2006, 03:53 AM »

unfortunately, i'm unable to see Lips in the maxthon toolbar also.

i'm unable to see it in the maxthon plugin dialog even though i have put the .js file in this path "C:\Program Files\Maxthon\Plugin\LiPs"

any ideas?

2461

Living Room / Re: Demise of the trackball? What's the alternative?

« Last post by nudone on November 29, 2006, 01:54 PM »

this multi track ball talk has reminded me of what i made when i first started playing first-person shooters on the pc.

at that time i really couldn't understand how anyone could use a mouse to play a game like 'quake' so i looked for an alternative controller.

i had a joystick (nothing fancy) and a 'mini' trackball - a thumb ball that you hold in your hand. so, i glued the thumb ball to the side of the joystick handle. this allowed me to make quick large movements using the joystick and very fine movements using the ball that rested under my thumb.

i played quake the whole way through a couple of times using this hybrid device and thought it was great - i thought i was so damn smart for doing it.

i then bought half-life (1) and made the effort to use the mouse to play it - which then made me realise that i was a complete idiot and that the mouse was about a million times better than the stupid joystick/thumbball monster i had constructed.

i've seen experimental controller devices where there are two separate trackballs - one for each hand - that were then rigged up to a user interface that exploited this dual hand method of moving objects around on screen. obviously, it hasn't caught on.

i still find the mouse to be the best option at the moment. a dual track ball (under one hand) would be tempting to use but i can't help but think we haven't yet reached the 'best' controller device. maybe a pen makes more sense.

2462

General Software Discussion / Re: Use Gmail to Generate Unlimited E-mail Addresses to identify spam source

« Last post by nudone on November 27, 2006, 11:44 AM »

nice gmail feature (does yahoo do the same thing then?).

i remember this kind of dummy email address method was discussed before on the forum but i've still not got around to implementing it.

2463

General Software Discussion / Re: Another alt.comp.freeware post on donationcoder.com, for your consideration

« Last post by nudone on November 27, 2006, 10:18 AM »

very well said, superboyac. 

2464

Living Room / digg requires far too much effort!

« Last post by nudone on November 23, 2006, 02:22 PM »

i was bored so i thought i'd look at digg.com

i closed my browser and came back here after about 10 seconds of looking at the digg.com homepage.

i really haven't got the time to browse through all those pages - isn't it about time there was a website that rated the digged links over on digg.com - something where a hive-mind selects the best stories from digg and posts them on another website - where they could then be voted for by another hive-mind.

and, even better if there is another website collecting the sorted links from the meta-digg website that has yet another panel of experts or hive-mind thingy. so, we arrive at about a list of 10 links that i know will be worth looking at as they've been sorted so many times over.

(apologies if this has been said several times before - i'm sure it can't be a new 'joke' but i'd like to see it implemented all the same.)

i bet it's been done already. does anyone know of the über-digg or meta-digg.com? (such a site must follow the rule of only obtaining links/stories from digg or other similar sites where the hive exists.)

2465

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your Favorite Recent Computer Game, and Why?

« Last post by nudone on November 15, 2006, 10:03 AM »

tried the new hitman - couldn't do level 2 so gave up. might try sniper elite again, gave up very early with it last time - same applies to theif 3.

-nudone (November 15, 2006, 05:39 AM)

Silent Assasin every level on normal and the next difficulty up. I'm so sneaky

-allen (November 15, 2006, 06:35 AM)

yeah, yeah, yeah. well, i've been through half-life 2 and F.E.A.R several times on every difficulty setting so i'm obviously a natural when it comes to shooting aliens and moving incredibly slooooooooooowly.

2466

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your Favorite Recent Computer Game, and Why?

« Last post by nudone on November 15, 2006, 05:39 AM »

half-life 2 + episode 1: bestest game ever and will remain so until half-life 3 arrives - or maybe crysis.

F.E.A.R + extraction point: makes slow motion death enjoyable again.

flatout 2: 'fun' racing and destruction.

tried the new hitman - couldn't do level 2 so gave up. might try sniper elite again, gave up very early with it last time - same applies to theif 3.

2467

Living Room / Re: Smilies With Speech Bubbles

« Last post by nudone on November 10, 2006, 07:41 AM »

never mind  jgpaiva already mentioned it. [attach=#1,msg43195][/attach] (see nudone, another use of coffeesmilie) 

-tinjaw (November 10, 2006, 05:48 AM)

ha, very good.

2468

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: pavlina's forums launched, the one on productivity looks good

« Last post by nudone on November 10, 2006, 03:14 AM »

i know that fairies live at the bottom of my garden - i admit i've not seen them but my grandmother told me that they live there and i know that she would never lie to me. i'm 100% sure that one day i will see one of these fairies. you'd think there would be some evidence left by them that would make it obvious but i've never seen anything - they must be very careful about hiding their tracks.

i better say no more. the 'mighty zargon' is communicating with me via telepathy from the planet 'xxxx00xxxx01' (well, i think that's where he said he's from).

2469

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: Want to get rid of your bad habbits?

« Last post by nudone on November 10, 2006, 03:05 AM »

this sounds very interesting - i'd certainly like to hear a little more - please.

2470

Living Room / Re: Pivot Stickfigure Animator

« Last post by nudone on November 10, 2006, 03:01 AM »

ah great. i saw this a few months ago and didn't make a note of the link - couldn't find it after that no matter what i searched for.

2471

Living Room / Re: does having many program windows open slow the sysem?

« Last post by nudone on November 09, 2006, 07:10 AM »

right, i see.

i'll just see what happens then. if it's just a case of memory being used then i think i might not notice that too much.

2472

Living Room / does having many program windows open slow the sysem?

« Last post by nudone on November 09, 2006, 06:01 AM »

i seem to be working with more an more programs that are open simultaneously (with several running in the tray also).

i tend to minimise most windows and just concentrate on 2 or 3 visible ones but i'm going to get into the multi virtual desktop way or working - i'm sure this will be less messing about, minimising and restoring windows every few minutes/seconds.

so, the question is: does minimising program windows have any impact on the way the system performs, compared with keeping all the windows open.

this will include programs that will also have many of their own child windows. so, as an example - i may have 2 or 3 virtual desktops, with these programs spread amongst them: photoshop, illustrator, adobe bridge, acdsee, firefox, internet explorer, opera, winamp, mirc, maxthon (with a few tabbed pages open), notepad, and 2 or 3 folders open (maybe dreamweaver too).

i shall obviously try this myself but i'm asking the question as without someone responding with an authoritative reply, i know that i'll just start imagining that the system is slowing down even if it isn't.

2473

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK NINE ASSIGNMENT

« Last post by nudone on November 09, 2006, 02:24 AM »

interesting idea, longrun.

please let us know how you get on with the subliminal messages. i know it will be hard to determine their effect but your subjective judgement will be interesting to hear.

2474

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: GETTING ORGANIZED EXPERIMENT - WEEK NINE ASSIGNMENT

« Last post by nudone on November 08, 2006, 09:58 AM »

most important thing i've learnt from this experiment - and the only tip/technique that i use is this (from one of Forster's books)...

if you are walking around with that sense of dread, trying to put something off, trying to ignore it or find other tasks to replace it - just stop and get on with it.

there's nothing that can kill that sense of anguish or anxiety other than just getting on with the thing you are avoiding. i admit, it might take me a couple of days or so before i actually carry out this advice myself - but that is part of it - steam for a bit then just get on with the job before the pressure reaches to high.

i guess, that is of no help either - depends on what you are putting off and how much longer you are going to let the pressure build.


(yep, i don't use any other time-management techniques - everything else just happens naturally after doing the above.)

2475

Living Room / Re: how wide can you stretch the width of your windows?

« Last post by nudone on November 08, 2006, 09:41 AM »

right. thanks.

interesting.

i shall find another way to test what i was doing - perhaps.