Recent Posts

2876

General Software Discussion / Re: AutoIt3 versus AutoHotKey

« Last post by Edvard on February 03, 2006, 01:40 PM »

FWIW- New version of Autohotkey out:

The latest version is 1.0.41.02 (released February 1, 2006)

2877

Living Room / Re: cool or fool - microsoft's scalable fabric

« Last post by Edvard on February 03, 2006, 12:33 PM »

This idea has been floating around the Interface Design (capital I, capital D) crowd for awhile now under the moniker ZUI (Zooming User Interfaces). The basic idea is that your desktop is infinite and you stick stuff into groups and to find stuff you simply zoom out to see where your stuff is and zoom back in to get it. Here's a good place to start with the guys who really started to develop the idea: http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/pad++/ and check out their ZUI Site Map (decidedly lo-res, but it works nicely, I'd like to see a DC version ). Nice to see MS really building creatively on an innovative concept, even while holding fast to the fixed desktop model. (all your desktop are belong to us...)
The ZUI Wiki page has links to others doing work on various projects using these ideas. Photo Mesa might be a candidate for Image Viewer review, and Zoomdesk zooming desktop... hmm.... sounds familiar...

2878

Living Room / Re: a grid of cool animal flash games

« Last post by Edvard on February 03, 2006, 11:41 AM »

No sweat, just glad to see people having fun with these little treasures. I really like the non-violence factor too. I mean, I'm no pacifist but knocking gophers off with acorns and bopping spiders before they eat your cake (wt...??) is so refreshingly low-key compared to the racks of terrorist training (I meant that!) available at your local xbox/playstation/nintendo dealer.

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Living Room / Re: a grid of cool animal flash games

« Last post by Edvard on February 03, 2006, 10:57 AM »

Hehe. I posted about this one awhile ago and called it the "kewtest widdle fwash games". Wonderful site, wonderful games, but they are so darned cute I get a sugar buzz after 2 or 3. My favorites are Hydrophobia (the little frog who couldn't swim) and Hungry Spiders.

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Living Room / Re: Dropsend

« Last post by Edvard on February 03, 2006, 10:46 AM »

Looks like these kinds of services are getting more popular. See my post here:https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=2012.msg13650#msg13650 for the link to a list of about 50 different folks that offer it, and there's probably even more than that now.

2881

Living Room / Re: free public domain movies to download via bittorrent

« Last post by Edvard on January 31, 2006, 05:57 PM »

REALLY public domain movies can be had here: http://www.archive.org/details/movies

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Living Room / Re: Opniyama - another insane japanese flash thingie

« Last post by Edvard on January 31, 2006, 03:46 PM »

FWIW- 'No Point' games are nice sometimes. Noctis is a good example: Mapping a Universe inhabited by Cats. As is Dust, where you are a speck of dust.

...plus if you meet god when you die you can just tell him you didn't know the rules.

Naw..."I didn't know the rules" won't fly. Even when kids play, they make up their own rules, and judge each other based on those rules. It is human nature to make up rules where none exist, and if God is God, He knows them all and you will be judged by them. Great Googly-boogly! Even CalvinBall has rules!

2883

Living Room / Re: Fan Computer Case

« Last post by Edvard on January 31, 2006, 11:14 AM »

OK this is prolly the silliest idea to come into my head, but you asked for it...
Start with wireless I/O via Bluetooth or something so the motherboard is totally disconnected physically from the keys, mouse, drives, etc. and is running on one of those mini power supply thingies with a few of those miniature 12 volt camera batteries. Still tracking me? Now...
SPIN THE MOTHERBOARD!
 

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Living Room / Re: Fan Computer Case

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2006, 03:53 PM »

Dang.

It was a few years ago now, a friend of mine had one of those humongous 386 towers as his computer case and actually bolted a box fan to the side of it. Running on low speed, it did a great job with minimal noise.

2885

Living Room / Re: Fan Computer Case

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2006, 03:31 PM »

I'd love a mini-itx for my next server

Hmmm... How's about Got a Match?

Now that's 'mini'...

2886

Living Room / Re: TyperA - test your typing skills

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2006, 03:24 PM »

Your score: 193 keys per minute ~ 38 words per minute
Language/mode: classic-en
Ranking: Not bad!
Comparison: 67% of registered TyperA users using this language have typed a better result; 33% have a lower or equal result.

Ah... but,

Mistakes:

(LOTS of backspaces)

I have a neurosis that prevents me from allowing mis... mis-sp... misspelling
Seriously, for some weird reason, typos stick out like sore thumbs to me and my worst habit is to "Preview" my forum posts until my eyes go all sandy...

2887

General Software Discussion / Re: AutoIt3 versus AutoHotKey

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2006, 02:24 PM »

I used AI3 for a while, and thought it was great. Basic-like syntax hit a soft spot with me, and I could do useful things without doing bat-file gymnastics. Then I saw Skrommel doing all these nifty things with AHK in the Coding Snacks and decided to check it out. Classic case of "use what works for you":
 I needed some (well, more than a few...) scripts to do loops in folders for counting, deleting temp files, processing graphics, etc., and found that making loops that worked like I wanted with AI3 was quite difficult. I had to ask in the forum how to do it and got an answer fairly quickly. However, it ended up being rather complex and the syntax not exactly how it was described in the help file. I had to keep that around as a code scrap for recycling in other scripts. Then I found out that AHK does loops MUCH easier and with more functionality, so I switched. I am pretty sure there are more advanced things that can be done in AI3, but it just isn't what I needed. YMMV.

2888

General Software Discussion / Re: Badware

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2006, 11:23 AM »

 
A long time ago, I considered working for a local startup software company. No programming skills needed, the ad said. I went to the place and took their aptitude test. They said I was smart enough but didn't have the level of programming skills needed. Here's the weird part; they offered programming classes for free with the promise that they would hire me at 8 bucks an hour when I graduated. The hours were funny, so I didn't bite and besides, the pay wasn't what I needed at the time. Anyways, about 3 months later I found their first software product, Stop-Sign Antivirus. I decided to download it and try it out. BIG MISTAKE. 3 download screens later, it installed more spyware and "phone home" trolls than I could count. I didn't even get around to scanning for viruses with it, it was so bad. A quick search on Google today shows Lavasoft (makers of Ad-Aware) had it rated as a level 7 spyware that was eventually downgraded to a level 3. I don't know about any of you, but Level 1 is too high!

2889

General Software Discussion / Re: What's your favorite launch bar? Your favorite features? Missing Features?

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2006, 11:07 AM »

Still off-topic but relevant to the current disco: Fungustabs

Okay, we all know what a tab is, right? So what fungusTabs does is place a tab on the outside of each main, or top-level window. You may then group the tabs together to form tab sets. What a tab set does is present all of its windows in a familiar bar of tabs, one tab for each window in that tab set group. In addition, only the tab set's active window is shown; all of its non-active windows are moved off of the desktop. What you end up with is a desktop with fewer windows displayed but with ready access to them all.

I'm trying it right now...

2890

General Software Discussion / Re: Most under-rated media player?

« Last post by Edvard on January 30, 2006, 10:51 AM »

I didn't say it was great. It barely has a playlist. I just have a special place in my heart for the small and straightforward with a little nerdiness thrown in. That being the fact that Fmod proper is actually a drop-in sound engine for adding (according to the adver... um... documentation) killer sound support to your own apps/games/whatever and they just wrote an example GUI for it. I don't know what it is, those kind of things turn my crank every time... Like finding a treasure chest on a desert island and it's full of tinfoil origami animals.
I'll check out VU Player.

2891

Living Room / Re: Coding Horror blog has become must reading for programmers

« Last post by Edvard on January 27, 2006, 01:22 PM »

ching, ching:
http://www.pingmag.jp/2005/12/09/the-website-development-process/
 (that's the sound of two cents dropping in this thread)
Does that programmer resemble anyone here?

2892

General Software Discussion / Re: Badware

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2006, 05:45 PM »

Now what would really be cool is if they listed some of these vile parasites like they do sex offenders.

2893

General Software Discussion / Most under-rated media player?

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2006, 05:41 PM »

Okay, ignore the BIG SHINY BUTTONS and Self-Aggrandizement at FMod.org and go to Downloads, scroll down to FMod 3.75, download and unzip. Now, take fmod.dll from \api and FMod.exe from \samples\fmod and put them in the same directory. Open FMod.exe.
A very clean smallish media player that supports a whole bunch of formats without too many bells and whistles. Oh, and there's a bunch of stuff in there for the coder types to make their own player, or use the FMod sound engine for whatever. Just thought I'd mention it as this seemed to work on all my ragtag second-hand systems that had real problems throwing up WMP.

2894

General Software Discussion / Re: Linux - Freeware or Shareware?

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2006, 05:06 PM »

Also try Linux.org's Linux 101 online tutorial.

2895

General Software Discussion / Re: PowerPro

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2006, 04:42 PM »

Well... I use PowerPro at work, so generally, I have to have a dang good reason for doing what I need to do with PP for it to be at all productive (and a few extra minutes shaved off my lunch hour) I use it mostly as a customizable launcher bar because desktop icons and quicklaunch were not cutting it. I also have some buttons for doing system thingummys through PP because it's MUCH faster. I don't use the virtual windows function because other VWM apps are better at it IMHO. I also run Litestep when I'm in the mood, so you might say I like to run the Giant Ant robot...

2896

Living Room / Re: Simply to much nagging here

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2006, 04:02 PM »

  Ya think Joey Parrish's warmongering penguin will get donates? -  http://armory.nicewarrior.org/projects/cygmp/

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General Software Discussion / Re: PowerPro

« Last post by Edvard on January 26, 2006, 12:34 PM »

Great site, very informative. Maybe I'll post a flash...
I've noticed (and I'm sure you have too...) that most folks either love it or hate it or don't care. My best analogy of most folks opinion about PowerPro goes something like this:

Some folks have a digital watch so they can see what time it is.
Some folks have an analog watch so they can figure out what time it is.
Some folks like to take apart the watch to see how it works and could care less what time it is.
Some folks like to run the robot that sets the time, pushes the alarm button, adjusts the wrist strap, sets it back or forward for daylight savings time....

THOSE are the folks who use PowerPro.

2898

Living Room / Electronic Paper is here...

« Last post by Edvard on January 24, 2006, 12:47 PM »

Check it out.
http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/PRS/reader_features.html
and about Sony and the whole DRM thing, read here:
http://www.gizmodo.c...ny-reader-146864.php

Personally, I think this stuff will hit big-time when it will be an input medium as well. Write a note and it comes out formatted text in the font most resembling your handwriting, draw a picture and throw it up as your site's favicon, take margin notes in the books you're reading with the capability to turn them on or off or share them with friends. The possibilities would open up with a tactile interface medium. I've always thought tablet pc's would be great if you could use your hands instead of a mouse or pen. Just use your fingers to 'stretch' a window, or tap (double-tap? right-tap?) on screen elements instead of clicking them. Because of the nature of the business I am employed in, I can envision a day when architects will have a table-top sized sheet of this stuff jacked in to their AutoCad workstation, upload final drawings or revisions to the builders on-site who can then project them on a wall or floor. I will essentially be out of a job, (paper and all that) but I hope to be living/doing something completely different by then.

2899

General Software Discussion / Re: does anyone of you believe in defragmentation programs?

« Last post by Edvard on January 23, 2006, 01:23 PM »

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Here at work, I am chained to a NT4 workstation that I use to scan and print large architectural drawings and let me tell you, that drive gets frag.ment.ed. If you remember, NT4 did not come with a defragger, so I need one. I heartily second the motion on Contig, fast and effective, and it stays out of my way. For that reason, I don't like Power Defragmenter. After it's done, it pops back up... in my way. There's no option to run and exit. So for further convenience, I use an AutoHotKey script to automate it. Here's an example from my script:

[Select]

RunWait,[Path]\contig.exe -s [drive letter]:\*.*
ExitApp

To script it yourself, just replace [Path] with wherever your contig folder is and [drive letter] with, well, guess.
And you can also add lines for as many drive letters as you have, like so:

[Select]

RunWait,E:\Progra~1\sysinternals\contig\contig.exe -s C:\*.*
RunWait,E:\Progra~1\sysinternals\contig\contig.exe -s D:\*.*
RunWait,E:\Progra~1\sysinternals\contig\contig.exe -s E:\*.*
RunWait,E:\Progra~1\sysinternals\contig\contig.exe -s Z:\*.*
ExitApp

but it seemed like only files that were fragmented tended to benefit from Disk Defragmenter.

can someone spell "Duh"?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual Slide Rules

« Last post by Edvard on January 23, 2006, 12:41 PM »

Yeah if they combined that with a force-feedback mouse (is there such a thing?) and some nice wood-slidey noises (*sschhhhhk*) itwould be almost perfect. I don't have a slide rule anymore, but I did pick up a nice hardbound K+E slide rule manual at a second-hand shop that was thicker than the one for my programmable graphing calculator...