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Recent Posts

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29301
Screenshot Captor / Re: After using a key, the program goes kaput...
« Last post by mouser on October 10, 2006, 03:57 PM »
i have an idea of the cause -
there seems to be something where the license window can get hidden behind the main window.
if this is the problem, then exiting the program from the tray and restarting should fix it (right click on tray and choose exit) [or else use the task manager to kill it].

another way to fix such behavior in programs when this happens (and i've seen it on other programs as well) is to use alt+tab to switch to the program, which will bring up the dialog which is currently being hidden.

please let us know if you get this solved - if you are experiencing it then im sure you aren't the only one.
29302
The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: 43folders podcast interviews with david allen
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 08:48 PM »
sorry redhat, must have missed that post!
i'll merge em.
29303
The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: 43folders podcast interviews with david allen
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 08:08 PM »
definitely no reason for them to talk about our software since they are mainly about mac soft; doesnt really have anything to do with the interview though.
29304
Living Room / Blog Review: Making Comics - How to communicate visually
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 07:32 PM »
Nice blog post on what looks like a brilliant book for aspiring comic book authors:

Magnificent! A work of genius. The best how-to manual ever published. I could keep piling on the superlatives because this book is simply a masterpiece. At one level, it is a comic book about how to make comics, and for that it is supreme; the best. It will walk you through every step of making a comic, including how to make them on the web, digitally, or in pen and ink. I've been working on a near-completed graphic novel, and every page has told me something important and spot on. With brilliant graphics, Scott McCloud combines the most profound insights from his two previous books, Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. But in this book he raises your understanding of graphic communication further by making every lesson utterly practical and useful for both novice and expert. I can't imagine anyone ever doing a comic manual better.

29305
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Acronis True Image for FREE
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 07:15 PM »
excellent! nice find AdIyhc  :up:

can anyone find the list of changes since then?
29306
PopUp Wisdom / Re: Potential new use for quote-books
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 07:14 PM »
this actually provokes me to ask if anyone knows of a free commandline speech reading utility that could be invoked by other programs?
29307
The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / 43folders podcast interviews with david allen
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 07:00 PM »
if you liked the interview we did with David Allen, you might want to check out the podcast interviews that 43 folders (our website of the month last month) is running: http://www.43folders.../09/productive-talk/

-
I dont know why the 43 folders folks didn't choose to tell their readers about our interview with David Allen last month, even though i emailed them about it at the time and then after they announced their podcast series, but regardless, this might be interesting to readers here, so I'm posting it.  (This might be a good time to remind people that we are not going to get into the game some websites play where they don't like to post about sites which might have related content in order to minimize competition).
29308
Find And Run Robot / Re: v1.13.01 test
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 06:06 PM »
thank you for the report Jan, it looks like some of my recent tweaks are not properly being invoked in methods 2+3.  your description is very clear and i'll try to have a fix up by tomorrow or weds. at the latest.
29309
Developer's Corner / Blog Essay: 5 Reasons Why Recent Graduates Should NOT Found Startups
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 06:02 PM »
Blog Essay: 5 Reasons Why Recent Graduates Should NOT Found Startups
Visit the link for the full essay - definitely food for thought, and the comments about marketing being an important part are particularly relevant and troubling..

Mike writes consistently well and on important subjects.  Here he is responding to an essay by Paul Graham.

Startups certainly require an inordinate amount of hard, thankless work, flexibility, and spendthriftness. It is rare to find suitable startup conspirators in your day-to-day life when you are working an “adult” job, and “ignorance” is helpful in that you don’t know enough not to try.
Still, there are several things that work against young entrepreneurs. Here is a list of five:

  • They Don’t Know the RIGHT People
  • They All Have the Same Ideas
  • It’s the Marketing, Stupid
  • Kids are Flaky
  • Kids are Good Pirahna Bait
..

29310
Living Room / Online Cover Browser for Comic Books
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 05:40 PM »
Fun nostalgia if you were a comic book reader..

During the last week I created Cover Browser, a website to explore & search comic book covers. You’ll find everything from Superman to Spider-Man to independent comics, and I plan to add more titles if feedback is good.
..


from http://blog.outer-court.com/
29311
Living Room / Cool Parent Gadget - Hipseat Baby Carrier
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 05:00 PM »
Simple but clever.

The Hipseat baby carrier has been developed to allow adults to carry their children naturally on their hip without the usual strains on the back. Specifically designed to address one of the root causes of adult back pain, the seat provides a firm shelf for the child to sit on and supports their increasingly heavy weight from underneath. Instead of twisting the spine, the back is able to stay straight and the child is tucked into the chest on whichever side is more comfortable for the wearer. Simple, practical and easy to use this baby carrier is both endorsed and recommended by osteopaths, chiropractors and back professionals.


from http://www.babygadget.net/ (cool site for parents)
29312
Living Room / Re: Blog Article: Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 04:55 PM »
The conclusions are worth posting as well:
How to Overcome Participation Inequality
You can't.
The first step to dealing with participation inequality is to recognize that it will always be with us. It's existed in every online community and multi-user service that has ever been studied.

Your only real choice here is in how you shape the inequality curve's angle. Are you going to have the "usual" 90-9-1 distribution, or the more radical 99-1-0.1 distribution common in some social websites? Can you achieve a more equitable distribution of, say, 80-16-4? (That is, only 80% lurkers, with 16% contributing some and 4% contributing the most.)

Although participation will always be somewhat unequal, there are ways to better equalize it, including:

  • Make it easier to contribute. The lower the overhead, the more people will jump through the hoop. For example, Netflix lets users rate movies by clicking a star rating, which is much easier than writing a natural-language review.
  • Make participation a side effect. Even better, let users participate with zero effort by making their contributions a side effect of something else they're doing. For example, Amazon's "people who bought this book, bought these other books" recommendations are a side effect of people buying books. You don't have to do anything special to have your book preferences entered into the system. Will Hill coined the term read wear for this type of effect: the simple activity of reading (or using) something will "wear" it down and thus leave its marks -- just like a cookbook will automatically fall open to the recipe you prepare the most.
  • Edit, don't create. Let users build their contributions by modifying existing templates rather than creating complete entities from scratch. Editing a template is more enticing and has a gentler learning curve than facing the horror of a blank page. In avatar-based systems like Second Life, for example, most users modify standard-issue avatars rather than create their own.
  • Reward -- but don't over-reward -- participants. Rewarding people for contributing will help motivate users who have lives outside the Internet, and thus will broaden your participant base. Although money is always good, you can also give contributors preferential treatment (such as discounts or advance notice of new stuff), or even just put gold stars on their profiles. But don't give too much to the most active participants, or you'll simply encourage them to dominate the system even more.
  • Promote quality contributors. If you display all contributions equally, then people who post only when they have something important to say will be drowned out by the torrent of material from the hyperactive 1%. Instead, give extra prominence to good contributions and to contributions from people who've proven their value, as indicated by their reputation ranking.

29313
Living Room / Blog Article: Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 04:53 PM »
"Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute"
nice article and relevant to this site.

Summary:
In most online systems, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.
All large-scale, multi-user communities and online social networks that rely on users to contribute content or build services share one property: most users don't participate very much. Often, they simply lurk in the background.

In contrast, a tiny minority of users usually accounts for a disproportionately large amount of the content and other system activity. This phenomenon of participation inequality was first studied in depth by Will Hill in the early '90s, when he worked down the hall from me at Bell Communications Research (see references below).

When you plot the amount of activity for each user, the result is a Zipf curve, which shows as a straight line in a log-log diagram.

User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule:

90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute).
9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs.
...

29314
The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / dirtsimple.org Self-improvement blog
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 04:44 PM »
Phillip Eby writes an interesting blog on self improvement.  A bit unusual but worth checking out:

Recent Blog Essay:
Why Time Management Doesn't Work

For many years, I would try every new time management or personal organization system that came out.  And while some were better than others, I have to say that, overall, none of them really "worked", in the sense that they didn't make me become the "organized person" that I desperately wanted to be.

29315
General Software Discussion / JackAss JoeJoe's Freeware Utilities - Nice Collection
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 03:46 PM »
We've actually mentioned invididual programs from this site before on the form (here and here), but i think the site+author are worth a post by itself.

The programs are donationware so if you like his stuff, send him a donation!

JackAss JoeJoe's Freeware Utilities

The Cost
My programs are freeware. There are no strings attached, no nags, no ads, and no timebombs. Those that enjoy my programs and wish to make a small donation can do so on this website via PayPal. Donations ensure that my programs continue to improve and don't fade away into the void. I've been working on my programs and this site since late 2001 and will continue to do so. Big thanks for all of your support.

Feedback
My programs are made, fixed, and changed because of user feedback. Don't be afraid to send me a note about a problem, and idea, or just to say hello. The Comment form is at the bottom of every page on this site. I do read my email and I try to answer every one.


http://www.joejoesoft.com

Arsclip (clipboard tool):
joe1.gif

Rename Master:
joe_rename.gif

StartRight (paces startup programs):
joe_startright.gif

29316
Living Room / (Defend the) Final Fortress - Flash Game of the Day
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 03:32 PM »
This game isn't new, but it's one of the best of its genre (defend-the-fortress).

29317
Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for October 8th, 2006 - Codename 'Fall Fun'
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 09:06 AM »
The fundraiser raised a few thousand dollars.

From the new About Us page:

Since its founding in 2005, the site has grown steadily and as of October 2006 has over 39,000 registered members from around the world. Of course it's free to sign up at our site, and only a small fraction of these people (about 1,800) have gone the extra mile and made a donation. Becoming a donating member has lots of additional benefits so we hope you'll consider becoming one of our supporters.
29318
Site/Forum Features / forum search improvement
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 08:05 AM »
got an "unreleased" minor patch for the forum search from smf people this morning, it seems to improve search; fixes a bug where subjects weren't being searched properly and scoring was a bit messed up.  let me know if you find any anomolies in search, hopefully we will soon have a perfect forum search function.
29319
Find And Run Robot / Re: v1.13.01 test
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 06:43 AM »
alexp, can you elaborate a little.
is the # corresponding to the last # you typed when you previously launched a program?
do you have an unusual keyboard? what setting do you have configured for it to show in the search window on launch.
29320
Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Firefox, Internet Explorer switch font button/selector for printing
« Last post by mouser on October 09, 2006, 12:57 AM »
this is actually a nice idea.  a ff plugin that will change the fonts used only for printing.
maybe someone could remind us of a ff forum where they like doing ff plufins?
29321
Living Room / Re: Flash Game: Zoo Keeper (Dedicated to Mouser)
« Last post by mouser on October 08, 2006, 05:22 PM »
for those not in the know, the inside joke that we keep making fun of is that ken posted this game which isnt very fun:
https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=5582.0

29322
Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - 2.25.03 - Oct 08, 2006
« Last post by mouser on October 08, 2006, 04:58 PM »
You can now comment on this announcement thread.  Comments will be split off onto a new thread with each new release.  I think this will make it easier for people to discuss releases but still keep the announcements clean.
29323
Older Newsletters / Newsletter for October 8th, 2006 - Codename 'Fall Fun'
« Last post by mouser on October 08, 2006, 02:39 PM »
Newsletter for October 8th, 2006
"Fall Fun"


"If you read nothing else on our site, get glasses!"


A Brief Word from the Site Admin
I want to express my deepest heartfelt thanks to everyone who decided to make a donation during our September Fundraiser - it was a big success.  As you know, we rely on your donations to run the site.  In addition to the substantial server hosting costs, which run about $300 a month, managing the site is an almost full time job, and your donations make it possible for us to devote the time to it that it deserves.  Thank you!

Many of you also asked us to put up a page describing the philosophy of the website and plans for the future. We're happy to unveil it here.

- Jesse Reichler (mouser)


1. Software Updates
We've got a whole bunch of updates available in the last few weeks.


2. October Discounts and Giveaway
October brings another amazing month of discounts for members, including some that we all know and love, like Beyond Compare (an incredible file/folder comparison tool that we recommended in a past review) and Offline Explorer from MetaProducts which has won high praise from several members of our forum..

>>> **IMPORTANT** - The software giveaway this month will end on October 15th! <<<
So make sure you submit your entry to win before then!  (the discounts will continue to run throughout all of October).


3. Software Discussion
Tons of great software discussion in the last couple of weeks.


4. Website Discoveries and Discussions
There are always new website services popping up every day, and lots of debate about the future direction of the web.


5. Flash Games of the Day
KenR on our forum has been busy posting us a new (usually) great flash game every day, to help relieve some stress during work.  Take a look at some of these great new discoveries:


6. Fun Stuff on the Web
We like to mix work with some laughs, and in today's newsletter you'll find plenty to make you giggle.


7. Hardware and Security
What's new in hardware and security? Not too much this month.


8. DonationCoder.com Site Features
What's new on the website?


9. Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and How-to Guides
Members share their views with each other.


10. Coding snacks
Skrommel's on vacation, but there's still activity on the Coding Snacks section of the forum.


11. Developer's Corner
Some interesting reading for coders in the last few weeks, and some new contests.  And if you're interested in the flash game contest, check out our self-teaching programming school for some inspiration.


12. The Great GOE (Getting Organized Experiment) of 2006 (GTD)
We are now on week 6 of the Getting Organized Experiment (GOE), and everyone seems to be learning a lot.  If you haven't started yet, make a mad dash to the section and catch up as soon as you can.  For those of you hard core members, drop by for your latest assignment.


13. Website of the Month
  • Our website of the month in October is Read/WriteWeb, a very well-written technology blog that has posted some lengthy essays comparing web2.0 sites, as well as some excellent opinionated commentary on the businesses end of these websites. A reliably informative and professional site which still manages to be fun to read.


thanks to jgpaiva for help preparing this newsletter
29324
Living Room / Re: Everyone's Photo Portfolio, Purlease!
« Last post by mouser on October 08, 2006, 01:08 PM »
PIKMIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :-* :-* :-*
29325
The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: PhinisheD
« Last post by mouser on October 08, 2006, 08:45 AM »
by the way this book has been getting good reviews:
http://www.amazon.co...ations/dp/0735620520

Improve your presentations and increase your impactwith 50 powerful, practical, and easy-to-apply techniques for Microsoft PowerPoint. With Beyond Bullet Points, youll take your presentation skills to the next levellearning innovative ways to design and deliver your message. Organized into five sectionsDistill Your Ideas, Structure Your Story, Visualize Your Message, Create a Conversation, and Maintain Engagementthe book uses clear, concise language and just the right visuals to help you understand concepts and start getting better results.
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