Recent Posts

2601

Living Room / Re: [HELP REQUEST] Please quickly review my new Twitter client

« Last post by app103 on September 20, 2010, 01:31 PM »

Thank you...working well for what I need. 

2602

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Re: Why Trying to be Productive is a Huge Waste of Time

« Last post by app103 on September 20, 2010, 05:24 AM »

He is right about it being easy to have a productivity meltdown when one becomes too preoccupied with being more productive.

And if he is right about rejection of ones self, then it really explains the one I had. Rejection of myself isn't exactly what I need in my life...what I need is quite the opposite.

I was trying to fix something that wasn't broken, and we all know what happens when you try to do that.  

I didn't need todo lists and faster more efficient ways to get things done. Drudging through daily lists of things you really don't want to do is no way to live life and be happy.

I am most productive when I am inspired, and that only seems to come from doing things that most people would call unproductive and a complete waste of time. Sure, it might look like I am wasting my time when you see me playing games, but since you don't live inside my head, you really could not possibly know what is going on in there. I am constantly brainstorming something, and if left alone to do what it is I feel like doing at any given moment, the chances of brainstorming up some great idea that leads to me getting some actual work done is more likely to happen.

I am an explorer, a wanderer that hops from task to task, I start a lot of things that never end up finished, and there is a good reason for that. I get a vision in my head of what it is I want to accomplish and unless I can see it clearly, I can not fully accomplish it. I'll go as far as I can go, then shelf it for later, in case I can see clearly enough to finish it. Sometimes I do, but more often I don't. And that clear vision that I need in order to finish isn't something that I can force. You can't put that on a todo list. I can not turn creativity on & off like a faucet. I can not find answers to questions I can't even ask.

Using someone else's time management methods just does not work for me. I really don't need to manage my time. I just need to spend it doing what I do best, which is whatever I please. So I might start 500 projects and only finish 1, but that's 1 more than I'll get done if I am forced to complete the other 499, first.

I am at my best when I have no goal, no plan, just living in the moment, doing whatever it is that I feel like doing at that moment. I accomplish more this way, and I am happier while doing it. Yes, I do get all the important stuff done, and a whole lot more. And if it doesn't get done, it really wasn't that important to me. And that's ok. (believing that it's ok is part of accepting, rather than rejecting myself)



_{The most time efficient way to fold underwear is to not fold them at all. It doesn't matter if they are folded or not, so why bother wasting any time folding them? It makes more sense to me to just toss them all in a box in a drawer and consider it done.}

2603

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2009 / Why Trying to be Productive is a Huge Waste of Time

« Last post by app103 on September 20, 2010, 04:37 AM »

Most of the time, trying to be productive is pointless. In fact, it’s a big, fat waste of time. It’s kind of lame when time management (productivity techniques & hacks) ends up killing your time, huh? Here’s why this happens…

For a long time I’ve thought about why people are so crazy about productivity. I’ve wondered why I am so concerned with accomplishing and completing. I mean, when you get to the point of looking for more time-efficient ways to fold underwear, you might have a problem.

So why does productivity matter, anyway? What’s so important about achieving?

The answer… not much.

The feeling of needing to accomplish something stems from dissatisfaction with the present. With this mindset, the whole idea of achieving is to become something. On the surface, it may seem like you’re doing something positive, but there’s a subtle undercurrent of rejection of what is. Rejection of yourself.

http://www.illuminat...-huge-waste-of-time/

2604

General Software Discussion / Re: Multi-Dock

« Last post by app103 on September 20, 2010, 03:35 AM »

You could combine target paths of multiple shortcuts into one, with Lacuna Launcher. (contains README in French)

Translate from Google:

Vous pouvez combiner les chemins cible de plusieurs raccourcis en un seul, avec Lacuna Launcher. (contient README en français)

2605

Living Room / Re: Flowchart for Choosing a Typeface

« Last post by app103 on September 19, 2010, 08:04 PM »

Are you alone?
Yes
Okay then, come with me

Comic Sans

2606

General Software Discussion / Re: how to make a list of fonts you have

« Last post by app103 on September 19, 2010, 03:53 PM »

It's not freeware, but FontExpert can export to html, creating images of each font, and can use templates for the page.

screenshot from mine:

2607

Living Room / Re: [HELP REQUEST] Please quickly review my new Twitter client

« Last post by app103 on September 17, 2010, 08:24 AM »

I was seriously considering writing my own over simplified tweeter (perhaps as a deskbar), but this will save me the work.

Thanks a bunch!

Got one feature request:

An option to auto-clear the box after the tweet is sent, ready to tweet again.

I am doing something that requires me to tweet a bunch of links, one right after the other. Having to manually clear the box will slow me down. Hotkeys will slow me down even more, since what I am doing doesn't involve the keyboard.

2608

Living Room / Re: My portable HTPC project

« Last post by app103 on September 13, 2010, 08:37 PM »

This might be the perfect barebones system for what you want to do.

http://usa.aopen.com...o=3047&mdstl=354
 (see attachment in previous post)

-app103 (September 13, 2010, 07:07 PM)

Wow, that's really great.  Thanks!  I love it.  It has everything.  It's bare bones, it can run Windows, it has plenty of connectors in the back.  very nice.

-superboyac (September 13, 2010, 07:59 PM)

I went looking for something about the size of an Artigo but more capable. (yes I know the MP57 is bigger, but not that much bigger that it wouldn't qualify for what you want)

The MP57 seems to have a lot more kick than some of the other things I saw, considering you can put your choice of an i3, i5, or i7 in it and up to 8GB of RAM. (makes that dc7100 of mine look kind of sad)

2609

Living Room / Re: My portable HTPC project

« Last post by app103 on September 13, 2010, 07:07 PM »

This might be the perfect barebones system for what you want to do.

http://usa.aopen.com...o=3047&mdstl=354

2610

Living Room / Re: Graphic Help for N.A.N.Y. 2011 Project?

« Last post by app103 on September 13, 2010, 04:07 PM »

Are/were you going to do the Crazy URL Thing?

-Renegade (September 13, 2010, 12:27 AM)

No, it was Instant Boss...the thing I get a lot of requests from Mac users for.

Crazy URL Thing is going to be Windows only. If I ever decided to make that cross-platform, I'd do it as a firefox extension, but right now I am doing it as a desktop application in order to keep it browser agnostic.

Maybe the Crazy URL Thing could be a team effort 

One of those dumb things that I'll never do anything more with and never release.

-Renegade (September 13, 2010, 12:27 AM)

 

-Perry Mowbray (September 13, 2010, 12:46 AM)

It's something I have to do myself...need to master a few skills and not pass the work on to someone else to do it. Don't want to take the easy way out and hold myself back. The stuff I have to master in this project will allow other projects to move forward. (I may have to build a simple RSS reader to figure out what I am doing)

Besides, I don't think Renegade and I speak the same programming language, and if he doesn't already have a Delphi IDE, it would be quite expensive for him (no more free version).

2611

General Software Discussion / Re: setup alternatives on blogger and wordpress

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2010, 11:56 PM »

There are some other reasons to use Disqus than the obvious, one of them being that you can see the comments left on other blogs by other Disqus members. Could help you decide if something really is spam or not, when you can check a person's commenting history. You can also ban commenters based on info like name, email address, IP, etc...then flush all that person's comments from your blog if they left any in the past.

Also, a lot of disqus users have their comment feed added to social networking sites like facebook, friendfeed, buzz, cliqset, etc. Sometimes someone sees a comment in one of their friends stream and it catches their eye and they get introduced to your blog. Yes, every Disqus comment made by someone that does life streaming is a free ad banner for your site.

Commenting
   Wordpress .. native system plus plug-in, if available on WP host, or later when self-host if not available now

-Steven Avery (September 11, 2010, 05:14 AM)

It's included in the latest versions of WP, including the version used on wordpress.com. Just have to turn it on, nothing to install...much easier than setting it up on Blogger (which really isn't that hard). 

2612

General Software Discussion / Re: setup alternatives on blogger and wordpress

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2010, 11:21 PM »

However the main double-step is the clipboard pics .. apparently they have to go directly into WLW as clipboard-->Eudora works and clipboard-->WLW but not clipboard-->Eudora-->WLW.

-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)

That was why I suggested a basic text editor like notepad. You don't insert images in notepad...you can't. Do the text first and then copy & paste it. Do all the image related stuff after you have all your text in place, just how you want it. Then just place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph and insert the image. The image settings will allow you to decide if you want it on the left or right and let you tweak the margins so the text looks right when it wraps around it. This isn't exactly something an email client is well suited for.

> Insert images. (select text wrapping I want, tweak margins, set border, set "link to" target, resize image by either dragging or setting size on "advanced" tab, set alt text on "advanced" tab.)

That I will have to play with.

-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)

The image stuff in WLW is one of its strongest points. It's one of the primary reasons to use WLW. It even does stuff like watermarking.

So it will re-edit to the same location I presume, ie. it knows the post. Understood. I was just hoping to do very small tweaks directly in blogger but if it don't work, it is as it is.

-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)

Every post has an ID. When you retrieve the post for editing, it also retrieves the ID which is passed back when you republish it.

I have WLW set to open my blog after publishing a post, so I can see exactly what it looks like. I can do any tweaking that is needed right in the still open WLW and republish it if I need to.

Now I realize that this is always problematic, yet when you have a series of blog posts (say 5 posts on one topic) .. it sure would be nice to have them rightside up !

-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)

This is why when you write a series, you start the post by mentioning that it is a series and linking to the previous parts somewhere in your post. If it is just 2 parts, it's ok to link to the previous post in the first paragraph. If it is a 5 part series, I'd do it at the end, putting the titles for each post in a bulleted list, in order, and then linking them to the posts. I would do this in each of the parts, so that no matter when someone discovers a post that is in the series (might arrive from a search engine), they would have the full list of links to all the parts. (yes, that does mean going back and editing the older posts in the series when you publish the next one)

Also, don't underestimate the power of a sidebar (or footer) link list widget. If you have a few of these series, make a widget for each series, adding the links to all the parts. It's a good way to promote the series to anyone that may stumble across the blog and not even know about them. You could even use a template that has a 3 column footer, and put most of the link lists there, with one on the sidebar, and manually rotate them around every once in awhile...drag & drop the widgets so the one on the sidebar changes. (also a great way to make something old, new again)

2613

Living Room / Re: Graphic Help for N.A.N.Y. 2011 Project?

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2010, 09:16 PM »

It's a complete no-go if I can't get someone to do graphic art for the software though. iPhones are all about pretty UIs, and I just can't pull it off on my own.

-Renegade (September 12, 2010, 09:11 PM)

I had similar thoughts about porting one of my apps for OSX. Finally got the art I needed for the dock icon, so I might try it now.

2614

Living Room / Re: My portable HTPC project

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2010, 08:51 PM »

I have a similar project I am working on, but with the intention of it being a HTPC, a spare PC for my daughter to use, and an emergency PC for my own use (in case something happens to my main machine).

What I am using is probably larger than what you want. It's an HP Compaq dc7100 Small Form Factor PC (about the size of an old school VCR). It's a very common model intended for use as a business work station. The higher end version (the one I have) has an 80G hard drive, a 3.2gHz P4 Prescott CPU, 1G RAM, and WinXP (Vista drivers are available, and I assume they will work with Win7). You can pick these up pretty cheap all over the place. I think my dad only paid about $150 for mine, at geeks.com (around xmas last year).

I am not the only one that saw this little PC and thought HTPC. This guy did too, and he has some photos that may give you an idea of the size and layout of the box.

You could probably use a cheap IBM ThinkCenter, too. They are about the same size.

2615

General Software Discussion / Re: setup alternatives on blogger and wordpress

« Last post by app103 on September 12, 2010, 08:18 AM »

If you want to paste without formatting, this plugin may come in handy, but I only use it for pasting in 3rd party code, like for inserting youtube videos.

The carriage-return issue is why I usually do my posts like this:

• Construct all text for a post in a simple text editor like Notepad. (this gets around the carriage-return issue)
• Paste into WLW.
• Check spelling.
• Insert all hyperlinks.
• Insert images. (select text wrapping I want, tweak margins, set border, set "link to" target, resize image by either dragging or setting size on "advanced" tab, set alt text on "advanced" tab.)
• Format headers, bullets, blockquotes, etc.
• Switch to "Source" tab at bottom and tweak HTML directly if necessary.
• Apply tags/categories.
• Preview.
• Publish.

And I do not edit previously published posts in Blogger's editor. I only edit in WLW. Even if you don't see it listed in the "Recently Posted" you can still access older posts by clicking "more" at the bottom of that list. Combining different editors will do nothing but give you headaches, no matter what editors you use. They all have their quirks. Pick one editor and stick with it. This goes for Wordpress as well as Blogger.

And I think I would like to try the initial blog posts, month-by-month, to be top-down rather than the more-common upside down most-recent-first within blogs.  Is this sensible ?  I think I saw that in Wordpress but perhaps it is not available in Blogger ?

-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 04:52 AM)

So, if you have 100 posts, you would like post #1 (your oldest) at the top of page 1 and post #100 (your most recent) buried at the bottom of page 20? (that is what reversing the order would do, and why you don't do that unless you are building a "static" site and will never have more posts than can fit on page 1.)

2616

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Famous Software : We review your software for free

« Last post by app103 on September 09, 2010, 11:11 AM »

Please do accept our apologies for this issue. Everything should be ok now. We didn't think that editing the attachments in a topic will actually replace their ids as well. 

-adi_barb (September 09, 2010, 01:30 AM)

No need to apologize. I didn't think you did this on purpose and it's not like you could have possibly been born with this info already in your head. 

I just figured I would explain it so your site doesn't get messed up with dead links.

On the forum, you don't actually edit an attachment. You remove the old one and add a new one. Each attachment has its own ID, so the new one wouldn't have the same ID as the old.

2617

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by app103 on September 08, 2010, 08:32 AM »

It doesn't matter whose launcher you would use for portable apss, Liberkey or PortableApps, they will install stuff by default you may not want.

-techidave (September 08, 2010, 05:47 AM)

I created a simple launcher a long time ago that can act as a portable launcher, if you are willing to do a little simple tweaking. It is a panel of 100 buttons and doesn't come with any extra crap. Once configured, it's only 2 files: the launcher and an .ini file.

• Place it at the root of the portable drive. (you can place more than 1 instance there, just rename them to give each one a unique file name)
• Right click a button and select an .exe file to associate with it. If the file has an icon, that icon will show on the button. (If it doesn't have one, it will be blank  )
• When you have all the buttons configured, close the launcher and it will save the configuration to an .ini file that matches the name you have given to the launcher's .exe file.
• Open up the .ini file in a text editor and fix the paths to be relative to the launcher...remove the drive letter part.
• Save the .ini file.

Now it will work as portable.

If you like it, use it. If you don't, then don't use it. Just please don't ask me for features or hand me bug reports because I do not have any plans at this time for continuing development on the project. I had considered releasing it as open source to allow someone else to do that, but if I did, it's likely to only make people laugh and never get any improvements. (I created it in less than 3 minutes, without writing a single line of code, and its original purpose was to get my daughter to shut up about all my taskbar shortcuts on a shared 9x computer with a single user account. All it is, is 100 instances of TJanRunButton)

2618

General Software Discussion / Re: What HTML5 can do -- cool site

« Last post by app103 on September 07, 2010, 05:32 PM »

Pretty cool!

Tried to share this one with my computer illiterate husband, and I did it with a few addresses, trying to find one it would work with (some of the places he has lived are not covered very well on Google Street View).

Found one that would work, but the area had changed so much he didn't recognize anything and it kind of lost its intended effect. So I did it for where he used to work and he got a real kick out of it. When I did it for where he currently works, he said to me...

Spoiler

Don't you think that guy is tired by now? You have made him run at least 3 times.

2619

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by app103 on September 07, 2010, 02:18 PM »

That is showing just slightly under the speeds I am paying for.

But it doesn't matter what that speed is, since I can't stay connected long enough to enjoy it. Anyone that has spent any decent amount of time in the DC IRC channel can tell you that my connection is highly unstable, worse than the worst dialup.

This is what I got when I told my ISP I was willing to pay for more bandwidth and upgraded my account from 768/128 to the next level. No matter how many times I call them to complain about the issue, they always say the same thing: Sorry, our fault, the problem is on our end, we'll fix it. Then I get a phone call 3 days later with a voice recording saying they fixed it, and they really didn't. I call back and complain, and they say the same thing again. It doesn't matter how many times I call, it's always the same. This has been going on for the last 2 years. I have basically given up trying to get them to fix the issue.

The way I see it these are my only options:

• pay more and upgrade to fios
• pay more and switch to cable
• downgrade back to 768/128
• deal with it, use a download manager like I used to on dialup, and try not to lose my mind

I am not willing to downgrade and watch youtube vids buffer all the time, I can't afford fios or cable (landlord won't give permission for fios any way), so the last option is about the only thing I can do at this point. 

2620

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Famous Software : We review your software for free

« Last post by app103 on September 07, 2010, 02:22 AM »

Sorry to be such a pain, but you are still direct linking to forum attachments on the following:

Crush Linx http://download.famouswhy.com/crushlinx/
Crush Pad http://download.famouswhy.com/crushpad/
Dad's Around http://download.famo...hy.com/dad_s_around/

The problem is that the developers have no control over the URLs assigned to forum attachments and the forum software will automatically assign a different one if the attachment is changed. It's not like a regular website, where the developer can control the download link. So it's not a good idea to direct link to any forum attachments on this or any other forum. Just something to keep in mind for future reviews.

2621

General Software Discussion / Re: setup alternatives on blogger and wordpress

« Last post by app103 on September 05, 2010, 10:41 PM »

I have a lot of Blogger blogs under a single account, and I am pretty experienced with it...enough to answer most of your questions about it.

Blogger only offers the option for them to host the blog for you on a blogspot.com subdomain, or you could point your own domain name at it. They do not offer the option to host it on your own server, any other web host, or locally on your pc.

Offhand I am not sure what the advantages to 3 might be .. unless there was some intensive stuff going on where a local connection is faster. Or, more simply (3) is simply for "set-up" then upload to your (2)?  .. then continue from there with web management ?  Rather than ask your web host to do the install ? Which simplicity will vary from host to host. I'm a little perplexed.

The advantage to that is when you are creating, tweaking, or testing templates and plugins, you are not working on a live site, so there is no risk of trashing your site by accident.

The simple fact of email posting to the blog, even pics and stuff (testing needed to see if inline .jpg will work on both, an important question), seems to tremendously simplify the actual blog posts. I played with the Wordpress editor and was not impressed, so Eudora, or an alternative if it words better, comes to play.

Try Windows Live Writer...it's wonderful and can handle multiple blogs and many blogging platforms.

Of course you have to go online for comment moderation, dashboard tweaking and stuff like that.

Or you can use Disqus and moderate comments by email, like I do. You can mark as spam, delete, or reply to them. It works on both Wordpress and Blogger.

One major first question is simple .. in initial days, is there any disadvantage in starting with the wordpress or blogger link ? Are they special efforts or costs or difficulty when you later try to port the blog en toto over to your own domain ?  Should you try from day one to have your domain as the host ?  And, if you start with their hosting, should you first set up your host with a URL redirection to where you might think you go later, so that you have a permanent path ? I know there is a possibility of a fee when you transfer stuff out, like with forums, $50 or so would not be a big hurt, but I really wonder about all this.

The best way to do it is to start with their hosting and your own domain name. That way you won't be starting from scratch when you move. Neither of the services have URL redirection for when you move. The only thing you can do if you decide to move to your own host and you haven't been using your own domain name all along, is put up a last post with the new URL to tell your visitors were to go.

As far as exporting your content for moving, Blogger has this, and Wordpress can import it. And it doesn't cost anything to export your blog. (it's something you should do on a regular basis any way, just for backup purposes)

Also I am thinking about the best way to handle the issue of unusual name or topic blogs, one account or multiple accounts.

I keep all my Blogger blogs under a single account. I rarely ever have to log into my Blogger account. I don't log in to post since I use Windows Live Writer and I don't have to log in to moderate comments because I use Disqus.

(One glitch already, I set up a blogger account under the wrong name, deleted it hoping to set it up under the right name, freezing the name as unavailable, I am asking about that on blogger forum.)

They don't release the deleted blog names right away. Sometimes it takes months after a deletion before they release them. Posting on their forum will not help. It's all automated.

Now, for some more info...

If you want more control over what you can do with your blog but still have the free hosting, Blogger is the better option when compared to wordpress.com, for the simple reason that wordpress.com doesn't allow you to use unapproved plugins and they don't allow the use of javascript. This will be important to you the day you want to add some sort of ads, widgets, or other custom stuff.

Blogger also has feeds for each tag built in, so you can easily do cool stuff like this. The recent posts on my sidebar is also powered by those individual feeds.

Blogger just added built in analytics, comment spam detection (useful if you don't use Disqus), and static pages. If you want a contact form, you can create one in Google Docs and have it send you an email alert whenever anyone uses it. It's very easy to insert the code they give you into a static page on Blogger, but wordpress.com won't allow you to use it on their site. (this is the one I made for my dad)

2622

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by app103 on September 05, 2010, 08:49 PM »

No offense intended, app103, but your premise simply does not hold up in the face of existing evidence.

-barney (September 03, 2010, 08:40 PM)

The existing evidence I used and based my reply upon was the 2 Dell Vostro PC's I have in my home that only came with 1 application that wasn't OS or drivers: Google Desktop.

There was no security stuff, no Microsoft stuff other than the OS...not even any weird hidden stuff like you get with an HP.

What reason would I have to lie to you or make this stuff up?

2623

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA - Automated posts to twitter

« Last post by app103 on September 05, 2010, 08:27 PM »

Maybe you should check out SocialOomph.

2624

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by app103 on September 03, 2010, 05:14 PM »

OK, one more time...

If your Vostro has crapware preinstalled (besides Google Desktop) it's because you ordered the crapware and asked for it to be preinstalled. This is not a home consumer machine. With home consumer machines, you don't get a choice...it comes with crapware.

This is a Vostro, a business machine and when you order it, you have to check boxes for every crapware item you want preinstalled. If you don't check any of the boxes, you don't get the crapware.

Did you ask for any crapware when you bought it?

2625

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by app103 on September 03, 2010, 04:54 PM »

I don't want Trend Micro - I think that's the current Dell offering - on a trial basis, nor Works, nor Word, nor any other trial software.

-barney (September 03, 2010, 04:47 PM)

It's a Vostro, it shouldn't have any of that unless you asked for it when you ordered it. My Vostro desktop came with a bunch of disks too. XP setup, Vista setup, XP drivers for the stuff in the box, Vista drivers for the stuff in the box, and drivers for the monitor.

And it didn't even have the Google Desktop stuff that I mentioned before, on any of those disks, nor the default Vostro wallpaper.