Recent Posts

27776

Living Room / Re: try my new experiment with HotOrNot pictures!

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 05:12 PM »

should be on screen at all times?

i think so.
also you probably know about such effects but you better really be prepared for people getting bored and starting to click relatively-randomly as the experiment goes on.  it takes a lot of time to go through 400+ pairs and when you start seeing the same pairs over and over again you start to get really restless.

27777

General Software Discussion / Re: A new holy war? PHP vs Ruby on Rails

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 02:53 PM »

i am a big fan of object oriented programming, so to the extent that ruby is a more pure object-based language is definitely a good thing.  although the author does say exactly as you describe, it's not the impression i got from my rudimentary studying of ruby and ruby on rails.

27778

Living Room / Re: try my new experiment with HotOrNot pictures!

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 02:36 PM »

i saw many pictures many more than 8 times (im guessing like 30 times+) and pairs repeated a lot.

27779

Living Room / Re: try my new experiment with HotOrNot pictures!

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 02:17 PM »

seems to be working now.

it advanced to the picture page before i had a chance to finish entering my email.

you should definitely add more information and reminders about what is going on - like a reminder about which picture i was supposed to be choosing (the one more attractive to me presumably).

i assume that i am supposed to be seeing certain pictures over and over again.  if not, bug.

27780

General Software Discussion / Re: A new holy war? PHP vs Ruby on Rails

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 02:10 PM »

my 2 cents:

Ruby on Rails is quite nice.

But it's frustrating to try to compare it to other languages because its really a Framework on top of a language.
Comparing Ruby On Rails to PHP is not really fair - there are TONS of frameworks for PHP that are trying to provide the same functionality as Rails, and very few people ever compare them to Ruby on Rails.

In some sense you see this kind of debate all the time, where people say they love product X, when it's really nothing to do with product X that they love, but rather some auxiliary feature of X.

I'm not particularly thrilled with Ruby syntax or design decisions - but i fully recognize the speed that you can develop safe web applications with Rails.  It is a highly structured framework that really forces you into a very specific way of designing a tool - which is not common in language frameworks.  I can't help but feel that some of the love for Rails is due to this well thought out and highly structured system which guides you through designing your service.  It's almost like you are modifying an existing "tool" rather than using a language.

So, if Ruby on Rails matches well with the tool you want to create, it could definitely save you some time and pain and help you create something really nice.  I'm just reluctant to say it has much to do with Ruby the language..

27781

General Software Discussion / Re: MOVAVI,avoid this company like the plague

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 11:40 AM »

most companies have a policy that if you purchase with X months of a new release you get the new release, regardless of the version.  We've talked about this before.

If i buy a program in january and in february they release a new major version and don't upgrade me for free i would be upset.  Not a good way to make your customers happy.

From my standpoint you should have a nice healthy period within which any purchase gets upgraded for free to new releases.  6 months min, 1 year better.  just my 2 cents.  As a matter of principle i'd probably avoid companies that didnt have such a policy.

27782

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.39 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - January 29, 2007

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 11:11 AM »

hmm.. what on earth have i done.. and why aren't these things happening for me..
sounds like an issue with my autoshrink timer - ill have another look.
now we know why these are still alphas 

27783

Screenshot Captor / Re: Capturing transparent windows with transparency - update

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 11:02 AM »

some screenshots.

here you can see how it finds the active non-rectangular window so the dimming effects can apply to it:



and here its used to autocrop the active non-rectangular window region and apply a nice shadow around it:

27784

Screenshot Captor / Re: Capturing transparent windows with transparency - update

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 10:52 AM »

An early alpha of ScreenshotCaptor with ability to capture non-rectangular windows is now uploaded.  It also fixes an inefficiency which was delaying display of new screenshots significantly - yay!

Message me for private early alpha link.

People who prefer stable releases should just wait for the public release.

27785

Mobysaurus / Re: Mobysaurus on Free Download A Day

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 10:09 AM »

congrats!

hey freedownloadaday.com looks like a nice site too! adding it to my bookmarks, thanks for the tip cthorpe 

27786

Living Room / Android 207 - Cool Stop-motion Movie Short for AI and Game Fans

« Last post by mouser on January 30, 2007, 07:23 AM »

Very cool and clever stop motion movie about android 207.

http://www.carrotkid...android207video.html

from stumbleupon.com

27787

Find And Run Robot / Re: Latest FARR v2.00.39 ALPHA PREVIEW Release - January 29, 2007

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 02:20 PM »

v2.00.39 Alpha is now up - see first post for changes - lots of bug fixes.

Same download as previous top secret alpha releases.  If you want the link send me a message.

(I'll tackle some of the issues brought up in this thread as soon as i get my todo list down a bit - i think we are approaching a public beta for v2 soon..)

27788

Accessibility Game Contest / Re: --> Results of the Accessibility Game Programming Contest Are Now Posted !!!

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 11:15 AM »

I think the next contest will be: Cody's Tower Defense
A tower defense game staring cody

27789

General Software Discussion / Re: online email icon generator

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 09:31 AM »

this is a really nice idea..
might also be a good project for a local application if someone wants to try it - would avoid the fears of people keeping your email.

27790

Living Room / Re: try my new experiment with HotOrNot pictures!

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 08:04 AM »

Happy to help a long time member test some stuff..  Im not sure if we are actually participating or just helping to test..
ps. it says to click start to begin but there is no start button on my page (Firefox) so i just put in my (fake) email and click ok and im stuck on that page.  maybe the experiment is to see how angry people get when they aren't shown promised hot pictures of the opposite sex?

27791

General Software Discussion / Re: really nice feature of del.icio.us: the for: tag

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 02:25 AM »

nice idea 

27792

Living Room / Re: My father's WinXP Home computer won't boot...

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 02:21 AM »

beep code before it goes into the BIOS setup.

yep - listen for beeps.  if you hear any pattern then search for beep codes and your brand of computer and see if you can find anything about it.

does the bios recognize the hard drive?

with the specs of the computer you would be advised to consider buying a replacement.  you could probably get a replacement pc with better specs for a couple hudred dollars.

27793

Developer's Corner / Re: I need an opinion about a feature I intend to add

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 02:16 AM »

Is there a need for a separate Compile and a Separate Build command? Please express your opinion. Personally, I never separately build the files. I am used to selecting "Compile" and the IDE does the job for me.

I too rarely just compile a single unit.  The only time it can be helpful is if you have a very large project, and you are trying to work on and fix one unit, it can save you a ton of time in those rare cases.

27794

Developer's Corner / Re: Great site: Coding4Fun

« Last post by mouser on January 29, 2007, 12:49 AM »

please attach a picture to such posts so we can blog them more easily!

27795

Screenshot Captor / Re: Filter images only in the thumbnail pane

« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2007, 11:34 PM »

btw, i have another feature to request for, i.e. can there be some kind of info-bar on top of thumbnail pane that allows for sorting? right now, i press Ctrl-D, click the headers then press Ctrl-T or Ctrl-L..

this sounds like a great idea to me - a sorting/filtering control for the thumbnails. adding it to my todo list.
i have some plans to do some sc updating in the next week or two as soon as i get FARR v2 out the door.

27796

Accessibility Game Contest / Re: --> Results of the Accessibility Game Programming Contest Are Now Posted !!!

« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2007, 09:42 PM »

All prizes should be processed this week - i'll be in touch to get your (shipping) info, etc.

27797

Official Announcements / Re: Announcing The New DonationCoder.com Help Desk

« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2007, 01:47 PM »

consulting thing has been going on for a very long time.. about 30 hours or so.. 

(dc dont quite pay enough to foot the bills so i'm preparing to more actively seek out some part time freelance work; if anyone knows any businesses looking to contract out some coding stuff, please drop them my email)

27798

Living Room / Re: Downloadable Game for the Weekend: Bloodmasters

« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2007, 12:25 PM »

The public servers that are available does not seem to be full very often

true.  let's organize some play.  a good way is to meet in the dc irc chat channel (#donationcoder on efnet, or click chat at top of forum links).

im going to join Puregamer now if anyone wants to play

27799

Screenshot Captor / Re: Capture&Save

« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2007, 10:51 AM »

screenshot captor saves all screenshots by default in its configured Screenshot Directory (you can configure this where you want it).

In the thumbnail panel you can see all the image files there - and you can right click on them to perform all operations you would normally perform inside your file explorer, or drag the files out from there into other programs.

You can also use Save As as you say and save as PDF or other formats in whatever other directory you want.  If you want Save As to save in your current screenshot directory, just browse to it (by default i can't remember if its in the Screenshot Captor program directory or in C:\Documents and Settings\....).

27800

Living Room / Re: cost of running a pc (in the UK)?

« Last post by mouser on January 28, 2007, 08:01 AM »

While it may be true that the only truly precise way to measure energy use is a meter, it seems to me that a simple approcimate table on thw web of the various approximate energy consumption of common pc/electronic peripherals would more than suffice.