Recent Posts

251

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: RandomPlayer - play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« Last post by brotherS on January 27, 2011, 03:34 AM »

I modified the script a bit. Now there's an ini file for the settings

-wr975 (January 27, 2011, 12:23 AM)

Thanks: Wow! I thought about requesting/suggesting that yesterday... excellent, thanks!

Suggestion: include a (.url) link file (linking to this thread) in the archive.

Missing feature: I can't right-click the tray icon anymore to reload the script.

Bug: RandomPlayer says something about a blacklisted process (and isn't playing anything) - what's happening?

252

Living Room / Re: Rip a CD to Compact Flash/SD/... without a PC - is there such a gadget?

« Last post by brotherS on January 27, 2011, 02:30 AM »

Thanks guys!

The Philips AZ 1880 player is not as small, but could actually be bought, and can rip CDs to USB sticks.

Wouldn't that be a possibility, using some CF or SD card in a USB adaptor?

-brotherS (January 26, 2011, 01:03 PM)

Could anyone (who knows more about this kind of adaptors than I do) please comment my assessment?

253

Living Room / Re: Rip a CD to Compact Flash/SD/... without a PC - is there such a gadget?

« Last post by brotherS on January 26, 2011, 01:15 PM »

Also a bit more expensive (and less portable) than the Philips is the Kenwood M-505 USB:

254

Living Room / Re: Rip a CD to Compact Flash/SD/... without a PC - is there such a gadget?

« Last post by brotherS on January 26, 2011, 01:11 PM »

Then there's the quite expensive Kenwood CLX-70 which seems to support direct ripping to SD cards and USB.

255

Living Room / Re: Rip a CD to Compact Flash/SD/... without a PC - is there such a gadget?

« Last post by brotherS on January 26, 2011, 01:03 PM »

The Philips AZ 1880 player is not as small, but could actually be bought, and can rip CDs to USB sticks.

Wouldn't that be a possibility, using some CF or SD card in a USB adaptor?

256

Living Room / Re: Rip a CD to Compact Flash/SD/... without a PC - is there such a gadget?

« Last post by brotherS on January 26, 2011, 12:52 PM »

Yeah, looks like the company went under...

257

Living Room / Rip a CD to Compact Flash/SD/... without a PC - is there such a gadget?

« Last post by brotherS on January 26, 2011, 10:03 AM »

Hi,

in a discussion with an elderly friend he expressed a 'need' for a gadget he could use on vacation to rip a music CD to a Compact Flash or some other memory card without having to use a PC. I exclaimed "in China, they build *everything*!", but a Google search later didn't turn up anything...

Is there such a thing out there?

258

Living Room / Re: I need advice: which laptop to buy?

« Last post by brotherS on January 25, 2011, 07:51 AM »

Been flogging a lot of Samsung HD laptops recently (eg. R540). Reasonably priced, well made and nice screens with the advantage of a full size keyboard. Main drawback is battery life is not up to the hype.

Depending on how much you want to spend Sony do some very nice HD laptops and generally are ugradeable to 8Gb RAM and have Core i3 processors which are quite nippy. Cost a bit more for the BluRay versions but they are really solidly built and have a decent battery life.

-Carol Haynes (January 22, 2011, 04:59 PM)

Thanks for the pointer. The only Sony that fits my needs seems to be the VAIO EB4X1E/BQ - which sounds pretty good (to me) on paper:
- 39.4 cm/15.5"
- 4 GB RAM (2x 2 GB)
- Intel Core i5-480M (2.66 GHz / 3 MB Cache)
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
- Full HD (1920 x 1080)
- ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650
- 500 GB HDD
- Blu-ray Disc Combo (BD-ROM/ DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM)
- WLAN 802.11n, Bluetooth

Not cheap, but might be worth it... and according to the review of a similar VAIO model, the fan runs continuously, but is rather quiet.

And should I ever decide to go SSD, I found this:

2nd Drive Caddy for Sony VAIO E & F Series (add 2nd HDD or SSD)
http://newmodeus.com...&products_id=280

eSATA-USB cable (eSATAp), connect SATA optical drive externally
http://newmodeus.com...&products_id=346

If you are looking at Thinkpads be aware that they are very crap heavy out of the box and make sure you avoid models with bloody stupid button/joysick type mouse instead of a touchpad (awful to use - unless you only ever plan to use a wireless mouse).

-Carol Haynes (January 22, 2011, 04:59 PM)

I'm not sure if you left out the "t" by accident or on purpose, but that really IS a sick invention... I wonder how it ever ended up in a real product.

259

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« Last post by brotherS on January 25, 2011, 03:19 AM »

I created an icon: http://www.filefacto...h/n/RandomPlayer.ico

If you like it, add it to your archive above and add this line under the Splitpath line:

[Select]

Menu, Tray, Icon, RandomPlayer.ico

Maybe there's a better way to do it, but this works.

260

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« Last post by brotherS on January 24, 2011, 02:53 PM »

Sounds great, thanks! I'll play around with the new version.

261

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« Last post by brotherS on January 24, 2011, 07:09 AM »

I don't know what you're doing with it, but it sounds fun.

-wr975 (January 23, 2011, 05:24 PM)

Yes. :-) It's a 'mind hack' experiment, I'm using this to guide my attention in a direction I like (so as not to be on automatic 24/7).

Here's a little AHK script doing most of the things you want. Perhaps you'll find it useful until someone provides a better solution or enhances this basic script. It works fine on my system. The sound file is just started and sent to the registered sound player. On my system it's Winamp. It communicates via the Tray.

-wr975 (January 23, 2011, 05:24 PM)

RandomPlayer! I like the name. :-)

Sending it to the registered player won't work for me (because of the way things are set up here), could you change that to AHK's own SoundPlay command please?

>  (in ABC order or randomly)

Randomly. The script kinda remembers the tracks played in a file called "played.txt" and won't repeat until all files in songlist.txt have been played.

-wr975 (January 23, 2011, 05:24 PM)

Very nice!

I'd prefer *not* to receive bubble notifications about in how many minutes the next file will be played. Could you remove that please or add an on/off switch for that? And by the way, the "x seconds" warnings before a file is launched only seem to work here once after the script is started...weird.

An idea I forgot to mention before: it would be nice if one could specify a list of programs that - if running - would make RandomPlayer *not* launch a file, for example Skype.exe.

Thanks for your work so far!

262

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« Last post by brotherS on January 23, 2011, 01:43 PM »

It probably does (no idea, Winamp just won't run on this computer for some reason), but does it support the randomly long silence I need and described above? Never saw it in a regular player.

263

Finished Programs / DONE: RandomPlayer - play a mp3 file at (almost) random intervals

« Last post by brotherS on January 23, 2011, 12:51 PM »

Hi,

I'm looking for a simple program to play a mp3 file at almost random intervals throughout the day. Couldn't find something like that with Google.

'Nice to have' options would be:
- daily start time and end time (limiting the 'operating hours')
- minimum time (in minutes) that needs to pass before it plays the file again
- maximum time

So if I'd set "min" to 10 minutes and "max" to 30 minutes, it might play the file again after 14 minutes, then again after 11, and then again after 25. Etc.

Bonus options I'd like:
- an option to set the volume
- ability to have it play more than one file (in ABC order or randomly)
- an optional toaster or tray area bubble notification that announces that it will play the/a mp3 in x seconds (the amount of seconds being customizable)

Oh, and a low CPU usage is much appreciated!

264

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by brotherS on January 23, 2011, 03:38 AM »

I can't reproduce.

1) I start a track, let it play five seconds and click Pause.
2) I press and hold the fast forward button until the track is forty seconds in.
3) I click the Pause button and the track starts playing where it should (at forty-five seconds).

Is this what you're doing?

-skwire (January 22, 2011, 10:40 PM)

Yes. But I have the "Rewind track" option enabled, and you probably don't. And intuition tells me that's why you can't reproduce it.

265

Living Room / Re: I need advice: which laptop to buy?

« Last post by brotherS on January 22, 2011, 04:33 PM »

I'm with f0dder!

@xtabber: check out http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=M3tin-05CEM (and turn the volume up) to get an idea how annoying it can be in a quiet room. Probably not so bad in a loud and hectic work environment.

266

General Software Discussion / Re: Karen's Directory Printer - copy content of a directory to txt file or print it

« Last post by brotherS on January 22, 2011, 12:59 PM »

A bit off topic but that reminded me of something.

Back in the day (the 1980's), I remember reading in a magazine that it was a good idea to print a list of all the files on your computer and put them on the wall for reference. Imagine doing that today!

-daddydave (January 22, 2011, 11:51 AM)

Ah yeah... the 80s... funny times.

ther are some alternatives

-ha14 (January 22, 2011, 12:06 PM)

"Alternatives" is a big word for those... here's why:

File & Folder List Maker
http://www.pcpros2go...older_list_maker.php

-ha14 (January 22, 2011, 12:06 PM)

Can't be bothered to try - it's version 1.1 only, and "Last modified: 2008-03-09"

PrintFolder
http://no-nonsense-s...ftware.com/freeware/

-ha14 (January 22, 2011, 12:06 PM)

I read in a review that it doesn't support subfolders (also, it looks very basic).

The Html Directory 1.0
http://camtech2000.n..._Html_Directory.html

-ha14 (January 22, 2011, 12:06 PM)

Html output *only* it seems.

267

Living Room / Re: I need advice: which laptop to buy?

« Last post by brotherS on January 22, 2011, 10:17 AM »

edited my post above:

[...]
Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 NSLDFGE
[...]

[edit] I was working with this a little today. The fan does start and stop, so I guess that rules it out [/edit]

-tomos (January 17, 2011, 09:31 AM)

-tomos (January 21, 2011, 03:58 PM)

Too bad...

Then hopefully JavaJones buys the other one and can tell me about the fan there!

268

General Software Discussion / Re: Karen's Directory Printer - copy content of a directory to txt file or print it

« Last post by brotherS on January 22, 2011, 10:16 AM »

I know, but not with a pretty good GUI, ready-made formatting, and Windows explorer integration! 

269

General Software Discussion / Karen's Directory Printer - copy content of a directory to txt file or print it

« Last post by brotherS on January 22, 2011, 10:11 AM »

Hi,

I couldn't find such a program quickly by searching the forums, so I used Google. I installed quite a few programs to try them, and the best one I found is Karen's Directory Printer. It was mentioned on the site before*, but with different descriptions.

You can see a screenshot and a bit more info here: http://www.karenware...ertools/ptdirprn.asp

I like that it's free and quite flexible, and most features are intuitively usable. It offers Windows explorer (right-click on menu) integration and you can either print the results or save it to a .txt file.

Just wanted to let you know about this.


* https://www.donation...;s+Directory+Printer

270

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by brotherS on January 22, 2011, 04:09 AM »

I found a 'pause&rewind bug': when I pause Trout, then rewind or fast-forward, and hit play again, Trout resumes from the position where I paused it, NOT from where I rewinded or fast-forwarded to.

271

Living Room / Re: I need advice: which laptop to buy?

« Last post by brotherS on January 21, 2011, 09:47 AM »

I tend to have Google Chrome running all the time, with *way* too many tabs open at any given moment.  That's the highest workload on a permanent basis.

That being said, what (if any) effect would more graphic card memory have? On average I have about 20-40 program windows (Chrome, text editors, Locate, ...) open on the desktop, plus 5-10 Windows Explorer windows.

272

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by brotherS on January 18, 2011, 02:02 PM »

Yes, it was a bit confusing what I wrote. I'll find some workable solution, thanks. :-)

273

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by brotherS on January 18, 2011, 01:36 PM »

Workable? Yes. Perfect? No.  (As I can't set those off with one finger only.)

But I'll survive. :-)

274

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout (audio player)

« Last post by brotherS on January 18, 2011, 01:23 PM »

Website | Installer | Portable
v1.0.5 build 19 - 2011-01-17
    - Regressed the change made in v1.0.5.2.  To start off with a random
      song, press the next button instead of the play button.

-skwire (January 17, 2011, 01:11 PM)

Is there another way please? The way it's done now, (as a keyboard user) I have to TAB twice to the "next" button and then TAB back twice to the "pause" button (which is the button I use most, and I like to be able to only use the space bar for the most often used function/button) just to get the standard random behavior (the player starting with a random file in random mode).

I'd even prefer the "plays the same file twice in a row" random bug over having to press the next button for a random start.

275

Living Room / Re: I need advice: which laptop to buy?

« Last post by brotherS on January 18, 2011, 01:11 PM »

Wow, thanks for all your feedback!

@tomos: long time no type! :-) I read that thread, but what exactly do you mean regarding the CPU? That's it's a reasonable choice?

@JavaJones: thanks, but the Lenovo Ideapad Y560 series seems to only come with a "glare" display, not "matte". (Btw, I agree, I find a touch pad that's not centered irritating too.)

Based on your feedback I'll might decide against SSD for now and get loads of RAM instead... not sure about this yet though.