Recent Posts

2776

Living Room / Re: Greetins from Thunder7

« Last post by zridling on May 16, 2006, 11:51 PM »

Welcome aboard Thunder, and thanks for sharing.

2777

General Software Discussion / Re: Review of File Renamers — let's make a list

« Last post by zridling on May 15, 2006, 05:52 PM »

I noticed that, too. Flash Renamer is a solid renamer. Just to do basic renaming, though, start at the 'numbers' tab. I like how it returns to the same place every time, and yes, has a keyboard shortcut for the rename operation.

2778

Living Room / Re: Fame at last

« Last post by zridling on May 15, 2006, 05:12 PM »

Who knew mouser was a woman and Carol was a starlet? We're blessed to live on the same planet as you two, ha!

2779

Living Room / Re: Skype users: beware

« Last post by zridling on May 15, 2006, 05:07 PM »

I had an odd thing happen this past week. I have 20 Euros on my account and when I went to top up, Skype told me I had too much and would have to use it all until I could top-up again. Turns out they are making all US/Canada out calls free for the rest of the year. Woohoo!

2780

General Software Discussion / Re: 7-Zip 4.42 Final now available

« Last post by zridling on May 15, 2006, 05:04 PM »

Good point, Edvard. And Igor Pavlov, the developer, is one THE nicest guys in all of tech. Many of the gripes I come across are with 7-Zip's interface more than anything else at this point.

2781

Living Room / MSN Search Spoof

« Last post by zridling on May 14, 2006, 12:46 AM »

Found this on Phil Holden's blog and it's worth a minute. It's a Search Spoof from MSN. Key in your name and traits and whoa, it's pretty darn accurate!
________________________________________________
Here's what it said about me:

Zaine Ridling: LOST: All Ten Toes.
Last glimpsed beyond gut Thanksgiving morning, four years ago. Left the house wearing white athletic socks and sneakers without orthotics. May be traveling with the waistband of a pair of jeans also last seen the same day. Small reward offered. Contact Zaine Ridling at...

www.comprehensivelostandfound.net/bodyparts/Ridling Cached page
The Eighth Annual "Zaine Ridling Marathon" - Walking up Two Flights of Stairs!
This year's effort a complete success! Hundreds of wheezing, limping, out-of-shape guys and gals came together in unity at the Eighth Annual Ridling Marathon Monday. The two flights of stairs intimidated a few of them, but most chose to battle the steps...

www.ZaineRidlingmarathon.com Cached page
Ridling's Company Gives him coveted "Best Impersonation of an Employee" Award
..."Zaine Ridling is more than just a slacker -- he has so perfectly impersonated a productive employee that it's a complete surprise to find out that he has done absolutely no work in the last 77 weeks...

www.ecscorporatenewsletter.com/Ridling.html Cached page
"I Hate My Job" Tips Forum Zaine Ridling writes: The Fake Spreadsheet Screensaver changed my life.
At home I have friends, family, and TV. But at work? Let's face it: work time is web time. And now I can surf without fear of discovery! This is THE killer app for people who would cheer if their jobsites were wiped out in a freak meteor strike. It INSTANTLY covers up my news, sports, entertainment or auction sites with a fake Excel spreadsheet. Check out the website - they give a 20% discount if you order from work!

www.insta-screen.com Cached page
Dictionary adds Zaine Ridling's picture under definition of "late"
"Ridling represents the epitome of lateness," said publisher representative Tilda McPhee. "We're also adding Zaine Ridling to our thesaurus -- late, tardy, Zaine Ridling, slow, behind, delayed..."

www.dictionarydefinitionof.com/late Cached page
Zaine Ridling shows up one year late for surprise party; guests don't yell "surprise" because they "forgot what he looked like"
Guests subsisted on nachos, bean dip, and cake frosting while waiting for Zaine's appearance. "I missed my son’s graduation," one guest complained.

www.whenwasisupposedtoarrive.com Cached page
Trash-slide traps notorious slob Ridling in own bedroom
Working around the clock with shop-vacs and a flame-thrower, Search and Rescue teams have finally managed to free Zaine Ridling from the wreckage of his own life. What they found in the process was disturbing, even to the most hard-bitten officers. "It was a garbage dump in there! No wonder Ridling couldn't get out," said police officer Harry Smithe, speaking amidst Ridling's pizza boxes, burger wrappers, and half-eaten....

www.metrodailynews.com/features/3890.htm Cached page
Tornado touches down, leaves Zaine Ridling's home cleaner than before
...pretty amazing!" Mr. Ridling told reporters. "The roof needs repairs, but otherwise the place looks better than ever!" Neighbors' reactions ranged from surprise to delight. "Look at Zaine's front yard!" said letter carrier Roland Amado. "No dead cat, no mannequins, no Buick -- it's like a miracle!"

2782

Living Room / Re: Google's Grey Goo problem

« Last post by zridling on May 13, 2006, 05:27 AM »

Great find. And yet the very Register page has multiple Google ads on it! I've always thought all of Google's software to be sub-par. Even Picasa hasn't been touched since they bought it. But if you do a search for "Great books" my site is fourth the list, and for "Great software" I'm first. And I don't have a single ad on my pages, woohoo!

2783

General Software Discussion / Re: FeedDemon changes?

« Last post by zridling on May 13, 2006, 05:13 AM »

FeedDemon's changelog is found in its folder after you install the update, titled "ReadMe.html." Smart, eh? Not. I hate companies that bury contact info, changelogs, and support info. Drives me nuts. I couldn't find it on FeedDemon's/Newsgator's site, either. Check Nick Bradbury's blog instead. He announces changes there.

Here's the changes for 2.00.23:
Added: Much better handling of connectivity problems, including server outages (more information...)
Added: "Preview Feed" added to subscription and import wizards
Added: "Feed View" added to view styles
Added: The number of items in a watch is now displayed when editing a watch
Added: Header icons added to news item list
Added: Delete folder dialog now includes the folder title in its caption
Added: "Outland" newspaper style now enables marking items as read (58171)
Added: "Test Connection" added to connection options
Added: "Scan for Errors" added to "Manage Cache" dialog
Added: FeedDemon's "Surfer" style now displays a "Play Media" icon next to items which include media:player
Added: "Text Size" added to browser menu (52678)
Added: SWF added to default list of safe enclosures
Added: "Check daily for a new version of FeedDemon" added to general options
Changed: Previous versions enabled turning off auto-purge in feeds and watches, which meant that items would be kept forever. This has been changed so that auto-purge is always enabled, and can never be set higher than 2500 items. However, FeedDemon will continue to support feeds and watches that had auto-purge disabled prior to this version. These feeds and watches will show with an auto-purge value of zero, and changing this value will automatically enable auto-purge.
Changed: "Auto-purge" has been renamed to "Archiving"
Changed: Clicking a thumbnail in a Media RSS feed now goes straight to the post's link (previous version displayed post's newspaper in FeedDemon)
Changed: The ability to import subscriptions from the previous version has been removed from the activation wizard and replaced with a separate import wizard that appears the first time that FeedDemon 2.0 is run
Changed: When navigating the news item list with the keyboard, the newspaper isn't displayed until you let go of the key - this way you can scroll through the items much more quickly
Changed: When a podcast is removed from within FeedStation, it's now sent to the recyle bin instead of being deleted
Changed: Default polling frequency changed from 10min to 30min
Fixed: Erroneous "synchronization service is not available" or "location does not exist" message when running FeedDemon after creating an account (55956)(55977)
Fixed: Can't type a value greater than 99 for the synchronization polling frequency (55717)
Fixed: FeedStation install doesn't honor "don't create start menu items" option from FeedDemon install (55446)
Fixed: "File in use" error when creating newspaper (55526)
Fixed: "Translator credit" overlapped on "About" dialog
Fixed: Import dialog fails to warn when NG login is missing before importing NG subscriptions
Fixed: "Incorrect language version" error when third-party language file selected and then deleted from disk)
Fixed: Resource leak in subscription tree (most noticeable on Win98/ME) (56219)
Fixed: Incorrect "tag:" hyperlinks for posts in synched feeds that don't have a <link> (56589)
Fixed: When FeedStation has been uninstalled, clicking an enclosure should default to loading it in the default application (57033)
Fixed: FeedDemon fails to treat rdf:about attribute in RSS 1.0 items as a unique identifier
Fixed: "Next" button disabled in activation wizard
Fixed: Spinning icon not removed from feed after update completed
Fixed: News item list shows empty titles for items whose titles are all HTML (seen with Doc Searls' RSS feed)
Fixed: Clicking "back" button after switching feeds results in blank page (57335)
Fixed: Folders context menu is mostly grayed out when a Watch or News Bin is selected (55985)
Fixed: Missing vertical scrollbar on specific web pages (first seen with Wikipedia)
Fixed: Inaccurate selection after deleting from news item list (57745)
Fixed: "Supress dialogs and error messages displayed by the browser" not applied until FeedDemon restarted (60343)
Fixed: FeedDemon doesn't update a feed's URL when it's changed in NewsGator Online (either manually or due to a permanent redirect)
Fixed: Outland style doesn't handle images in short posts correctly (58195)
Fixed: Synchronization message displays incorrectly at 120dpi
Fixed: When the IE7 beta is installed, selecting "Open in new tab" from the context menu in FeedDemon's browser opens the page in a new tab and a new window
Fixed: Watches with auto-purge disabled are reset to auto-purge at 200 items (2.0.0.23)
Fixed: Auto-discovery handles query strings incorrectly (2.0.0.23)

2784

General Software Discussion / Re: video editing software

« Last post by zridling on May 13, 2006, 05:07 AM »

Also check out Video Edit Magic. Easy to use and will convert to anything you want and makes editing — cutting, pasting, adding/changing audio, and transitions — a snap.

2785

General Software Discussion / Re: These days, it's the Usability, stupid

« Last post by zridling on May 10, 2006, 02:04 PM »

Agreed. I listed Find and Run Robot because it doesn't seem difficult to use right out of the box, but not necessarily so for Screenshot Captor. I find it an advanced screen capture utility, not a basic one. Screenshot Captor just does a lot of stuff.

2786

General Software Discussion / Re: Is anyone here using Website Watcher to monitor the AHK forum?

« Last post by zridling on May 10, 2006, 02:01 PM »

Martin Aignesberger, one of my all-time favorite programmers! Thanks for the tip.

2787

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by zridling on May 10, 2006, 01:12 AM »

I mostly agree with Jim, except for OneNote's shortcomings. It's a great program in so many ways, and Microsoft will push it because it's also a great tablet app — how many of those are around? I like OneNote because of its flawless outlining abilities and its ability to export its content to readable, formatted text in other programs. That's very rare, and saves a ton of time. If I'm correct, I think OneNote is the only original program Microsoft has created since 1997 (not counting InfoPath).

2788

General Software Discussion / Vote for your favorite software programs of the year!

« Last post by zridling on May 10, 2006, 01:06 AM »

Time to step up and vote for your favorite programs in the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation! To vote:

__(1) Visit http://www.siafvoting.com/pca/index.asp?Source=SIAF and enter your name and email address.

__(2) You will instantly receive an email message titled People's Choice Awards Voter Registration.  Click the link in the message.

__(3) Then enter the top 7 program titles you like, and press Submit.

Visit http://www.sic.org/peopleschoice.asp for more information. Voting ends May 31, 2006.

2789

General Software Discussion / These days, it's the Usability, stupid

« Last post by zridling on May 08, 2006, 11:50 PM »

Two must-read articles whose content must be understood by all, if you haven't already recognized it:

#1: It's the user experience, stupid
#2: The Friendly Face of Business Software

Basically, it comes down to: "When the software works and it's easy, it catches on fast within companies [and end users!] and quickly builds a grassroots following." And I'm sure you could list a handful of programs that fit this description:

 — Find and Run Robot
 — CCleaner
 — EmEditor
 — FastStone Image Viewer
 — 7-Zip archiver
 — Pixeur by Veign
 — Skype
 — WinAmp?

You get the picture.

2790

Living Room / Re: Madness is contagious!

« Last post by zridling on May 08, 2006, 09:44 PM »

What a great degree, Carol! I think one of the reasons Beethoven is more highly regarded and studied over Mozart is that he did compose so many different things at so many different levels - even atonal pieces. (If you listen to Mozart for a while, you can predict where he's going, for example.) Sadly, many piano students have never sat down and read his compositions, just read the sheet music from start to finish (takes all day depending on how fast you read music). If they would, they'd marvel at what he accomplished.

2791

Living Room / Re: German, French, and V for Vendetta

« Last post by zridling on May 08, 2006, 01:49 AM »

All right, thanks for the book link!

2792

Living Room / German, French, and V for Vendetta

« Last post by zridling on May 08, 2006, 01:28 AM »

I'm an English speaker, but I watch both movies and as much TV as possible in either German or French (and sometimes Italian if I can find it.) No, I don't speak either language, but I have read books in both. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite a lot of fun. And even if you don't know anything about these languages, you'll be surprised at how much of the story line you'll understand. For example, watching the show The King of Queens in German is so much better than mere English!

         

Perhaps the Europeans and Brits among us don't understand that we in the US are sadly self-isolated when it comes to other languages. We're sometimes bombarded by Spanish, but I don't live in the US Southwest where it is prevalent. The only place I've been too in a while where I've had a blast is Quebec, Canada.

PS: V for Vendetta is one of the better movies I've seen in a long while. If you haven't seen it, make sure you do! Natalie Portman's British accent will make you cringe, but the story is Batman meets Phantom of the Opera meets George Orwell's 1984, and Hugo Weaving — the bad guy from The Matrix — is awesome as 'V'.

Here's the Guy Fawkes backstory to the plot.

2793

General Software Discussion / Re: Will 64-bit make a difference?

« Last post by zridling on May 06, 2006, 11:40 PM »

Good points, gjehle. One thing I consistently gripe about is the inability of many programs to handle large files, be they documents, text files, database files, or even photos. Everyone tells me I don't need it, but if they worked on the files I'm given to work with every week, 64-bit couldn't come fast enough, assuming the code doesn't eat it up.

2794

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« Last post by zridling on May 06, 2006, 02:25 AM »

The big search apps — Copernic, Windows, Google, X1, Yahoo — all do roughly the same thing except for some variations, e.g., the file types they won't index. But in the end, it comes down to what interface you like, and how much control you have over the indexing process. I got rid of all of them because more and more apps want to index the crap out of my HD, and I'm sick of my HD platters spinning and spinning and spinning when I'm not there.

Just my take.

2795

Living Room / Re: Do you Suffer from Computer Anger Management - How do you handle it?

« Last post by zridling on May 04, 2006, 04:49 PM »

Rover made me think of this unattributed quote, which has always rang true to my experience:

Frustration is a function of expectation.

I don't "notice" the hammer until it breaks. I don't pay any attention to the car until it fails to start. So it must be with programming. Once the intractable bug appears, suddenly my perspective toward the program is inexorably changed.

2796

Living Room / Re: Do you Suffer from Computer Anger Management - How do you handle it?

« Last post by zridling on May 04, 2006, 02:33 PM »

The Buddha would say that you must learn to detach from that which produces your anger, and that which makes you angry is your greatest teacher at that moment — telling you that you need patience, temperance, and solitude.

And when that doesn't work, I curse like my dad used to. Cursing at the top of my lungs at myself and the object of my anger is the only thing that seems to calm me down. And if that doesn't work, I give up, withdraw, and abandon the whole thing in favor of watching a romantic or sentimental movie.

I'm a 44-year old man who lives in a basement, so it's definitely working for me!

2797

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a News Reader that Searches the News?

« Last post by zridling on May 01, 2006, 09:31 PM »

Sounds like a spider program. As Allen noted, you can set up keyword searches and filters that will flag anything you want, presuming you're subscribed to it. But if one of your feeds is technorati or Del.icio.us, then you will more likely grab more than you'll ever have time to read. I love Opera's M2, but also use FeedDemon.

2798

Older Newsletters / Re: The First DonationCoder Audio Podcast Radio Show - Broadcast Schedule

« Last post by zridling on April 30, 2006, 08:40 PM »

superboyac, your comments were on user interfaces are SO TRUE to my experience! And how come all the Germans speak English so damn well, and when I speak German, I sound like an idiot? (Don't answer that.) Loved joyo's comments, and Housetier's GrokLaw review and focus on the SCO case, and had some great laughs over every segment. Even the music is funny, reminding me of a split between David Lynch movie theme and Public Broadcasting on a Saturday!

Thanks to all the contributors, notably the "first computer" segment. I absolutely can't wait to hear from others in the second broadcast, er, podcast.

My only suggestion for the May podcast would be to list on the forum/DCC site a time index for each segment so I know where to find what and what's coming up.

2799

Podcast Radio Show / Re: Podcast Audio Radio Show - Upcoming Show Planning

« Last post by zridling on April 30, 2006, 08:36 PM »

superboyac, your comments were on user interfaces are SO TRUE to my experience! And how come all the Germans speak English so damn well, and when I speak German, I sound like an idiot? (Don't answer that.) Loved the GrokLaw review, and had some great laughs over every segment. Even the music is funny, reminding me of a split between David Lynch movie theme and Public Broadcasting on a Saturday!

Thanks to all the contributors, notably the "first computer" segment. I absolutely can't wait to hear from others in the second broadcast, er, podcast.

2800

Living Room / Do you follow the directions?

« Last post by zridling on April 30, 2006, 05:31 PM »

I read, but do not always follow the directions on the box, the can, the package, etc. If you're a cook, you know the obvious reason why not to follow them. If you're a painter, then you better follow them, if for no other reason to save time. What about software? I stumbled across this old Joel Spolsky checklist for building better software back in 2000 on my HD. If you haven't read it, it might save you a lot of time.

       01. Do you use source control?
       02. Can you make a build in one step?
       03. Do you make daily builds?
       04. Do you have a bug database?
       05. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
       06. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
       07. Do you have a spec?
       08. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
       09. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
       10. Do you have testers?
       11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
       12. Do you do hallway usability testing?

* Thanks thrown to Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror for reminding me what helped me start my own little great software list.