Recent Posts

301

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« Last post by worstje on February 28, 2011, 02:34 AM »

So, I can't talk much about DC's strengths, weaknesses, etc. I can only point out the things I have heard, seen or otherwise experienced.

• A few months ago, mouser went totally nuts. To toot my own horn, he called me the posterboy of DoCo. Why? Because I went from lurking and offering my thoughts on the Dina font, to requesting a coding snack, and in the end ended up submitting two applications for the most recent NANY. How did DonationCoder fail to spread the Cody spirit with me?
• I have come and gone, come and gone. I'm like the ebbing flow of the tides. Yet DoCo has remained. What that points out to me is that DoCo's strength is not in its day-to-day active memberbase, or the day-to-day content, but in the longterm value it acquires. Yes, DonationCoder promotes Donations, and yes, maybe it needs to work a bit harder on that. But tell me, is DonationCoder not its own best advertisement? Existing for six years on donations alone? mouser said above that running this website costs $500 a year (if I misquoted, my apologies), which just show donations can get you damn far AND get you to feel good. Leading by example, it is called.
• Donating is one way of supporting. Writing coding snacks is another. Writing up free reviews is yet another. They are all equally important. We are the sum of our members, and the sum is generally bigger than the parts. But nothing will happen if someone does not make a first step - and for you, making this post is a great second step (donating was the first ). Personally, I've brought up tons of stuff to mouser in the past few months, both involving the site and DoCo-activities-wise. Have you tried to actually change things, as opposed to standing back and going 'wait, two years went by, and nothing really changed'? I don't mean to sound condescending by saying that; all it means is that someone needs to lead. How about you take the initiative and lead DoCo in the direction you want it to to conform to be more like your image of it?

I hope you'll take those comments in good faith as that is their intent. They're not meant to crack down on your opinion or thoughts, as I personally appreciate those, and I can see your point very well. Were DoCo an actual business, it should have flopped five years ago. Thankfully, it is not.

302

General Software Discussion / Re: Wanna try something weird? A little Outlook 2007 fun.

« Last post by worstje on February 28, 2011, 01:58 AM »

I'm sorry to say it, but I do agree with the fact that the IE engine is too much for this case. Yes, there is a point for re-use. But there's also a good point for abstraction. That control has just so much junk squashed into it, it will lag everything to hell. Have you ever tried to hit back or forward on a website while using any IE version of the last 10 years? If you have, you'll know it takes a second (even on a fresh install) for the page to actually jump. The annoying *clicky* sound makes it even worse feeling-wise. Now compare that to a browser like Opera or Chrome, and you won't notice a thing. Instantaneous switching.

It just has baggage. All webbrowsers do in one way or another. Which is why I am against everything going to the web. Too. Much. Damn. Baggage.

303

Site/Forum Features / Re: Fundraiser ONE-A-DAY Planning Calendar, Please Volunteer

« Last post by worstje on February 28, 2011, 01:39 AM »

So, I came up with a project. I haven't got a definite release date picked yet, but it is not a project I can do alone. I already mousered mouser into this, and now I am going to try and recruit the rest of you.

In the style I and my awesome white hat have acquired in the past few months, I am not going to tell you what it is. Everyone 'loved' guessing what JottiQ might be, and from experience I know people haven't changed a bit in that regard. So instead I am going to tell you all to take my word on it, and to simply assume epicness.

And of course, I am telling you all to apply for one or more of the tasks listed below. You will be told as much as you need to know, and not a bit more. This in the hope to build some anticipation for this March Madness, and keep the surprise fresh when it comes out.

We are currently looking for: (my rough uneducated guesses as for the time the task takes are listed too)

• A webpage designer with a bit of graphical skills, since I lack those. (Time taken: 2-10 hours)
• At least five creative minds. (Time taken: unknown)
• One person who is handy/gifted with one of those icon editors that's been given away. (Time taken: however long it takes)
• One (talented)mIRC scripter (Time taken: ~2 hours for a basic script, infinite for a really polished script by someone OCD and obsessed with details like me)

The above list is in order of urgency. Some people (tasks) may only be able to work after others or I are done preparing certain pre-requisites. Italics mean (very) nice to have but not required for the project to be released.

For now, I am aiming for a half-way through March release. Maybe it will slide a bit, but hopefully not. Use that as a guideline around what time of the month your services will be needed when you apply. You can ask questions on IRC or to me personally through PMs. Or just post here if that is what you prefer.

304

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: JottiQ

« Last post by worstje on February 27, 2011, 12:32 PM »

sujay85, please give Ath's explanation a try. I am most curious to see how that'll work out. Whether or not it works, please post your results so alternative options can be considered for implementation.

305

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: JottiQ

« Last post by worstje on February 27, 2011, 11:43 AM »

Dare I ask how one is supposed to browse the internet with such a proxy? If IE can't do authenticating proxies properly, you can't open any pages either right? Or am I missing something silly?

Either way, I will look into the matter when I have a bit of free time.

306

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: JottiQ

« Last post by worstje on February 27, 2011, 12:37 AM »

Welcome to DonationCoder, sujay85!

I have been told by someone (I think early on in this thread) that it already works with proxy stuff. I believe JottiQ adopts the Internet Explorer proxy information, or whatever .NET uses. If setting it there does not work, I will look into it - but again, I could swear someone already informed me JottiQ should work through proxies. I remember being relieved about it working straight away without needing to put any special effort in.

(I know very little of proxies and am not really in a position to test such stuff either; perhaps your configured proxy does not allow encrypted https 'ssl' connections?)

307

Living Room / Re: [Humor]: An update is available for your computer!

« Last post by worstje on February 25, 2011, 10:42 AM »

Annoying? I came back to my machine seeing that it had updated automatically. I didn't have to do anything but reboot which took less than a minute. On Windows, the reboot is optional. On Linux, if I don't logoff after certain updates, the WM will look quite screwy.

-Josh (February 25, 2011, 07:58 AM)

I disagree. Windows 7 is an absolute pain, putting your arm through the wrangler with regards to rebooting. Half the updates are marked as 'may need to reboot' and end up not needing it (although it maybe just have been the early W7 period when I paid a lot of attention to it). You cannot configure it to only automatically install only those things that do not need a reboot. Once something needing a reboot is installed, it is pure utter hell trying to get it to give you some slack. At most, you can tell it to wait 4 hours before nagging you again. And it will not take fullscreen apps into consideration. I've had it force-close me out of a lot of documents that didn't get auto-saved in any sort of way.

If Microsoft fixed that, I might call their updater pleasant. Right now, it is hell as it really forces me to manually involve myself far too much.

308

Living Room / Re: We are doomed: IBM's Watson debuts on Jeopardy today (14 Feb 2011)

« Last post by worstje on February 24, 2011, 10:32 PM »

I'd find it funnier if I could make out what the console stuff said. I feel like I am missing the punchline.

309

Site/Forum Features / Re: Revisiting the idea of simplifying the DC big app license key stuff

« Last post by worstje on February 22, 2011, 11:47 AM »

I only skimmed over this topic, but I think there is one distinction we should keep in mind. There is such a thing as donationware, and there is such a thing as nagware. The first of those gets sympathy, the latter gets plain hated upon no matter how noble the motives behind it.

but does the link on the application take people directly to the key page?

yes it does.  but that key page is confusing to people.

-mouser (February 22, 2011, 11:43 AM)

Then that page needs reworking to make it simpler.

310

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Beta new version of TrID file identifier - now with batch scanning & renaming

« Last post by worstje on February 19, 2011, 01:04 PM »

I saw this tool before and wanted to comment, but I think I never did. I love this sort of tool - it's useful, full of byte-juggling and all that stuff. Way more fun than dorky GUI stuff.

I've been meaning to ask: how does TrID compare to builtin linux tools? If I recall properly linux has a file command that does the exact same thing, and there's probably a Windows port for that command too.

311

Skwire Empire / Re: Trout 1.05x playback now "skips" often; 1.0.4.9 never did/does ...

« Last post by worstje on February 19, 2011, 09:18 AM »

skwire, I found a download link under Share/Embed options. Does that work?

312

Living Room / Re: Never Defragment an SSD ?

« Last post by worstje on February 18, 2011, 06:07 AM »

I don't know much about SSDs at all, but how is writing different from erasing (or erasing different from writing)? Writing is the act of putting a bit to either a 1 or a 0. Erasing is the act of writing 0s in the most conventional case, although more secure versions tend to randomize whatever they write. Either way, erasing would be implemented as the act of writing, so I still believe it is write-cycles you are worried about. The only 'trick' about writing on SSDs is that entire blocks of data need to be rewritten when you change a single bit, and that is what helps wear down on SSDs so much, if I understand it all properly.

313

Living Room / Re: Hilarious DailyWTF

« Last post by worstje on February 17, 2011, 01:49 PM »

Chlorine isn't good enough. It needs botulism, hydrochloric acid and a nuclear bomb or two. Maybe that will contain the outbreak a little.

314

Living Room / Re: Hilarious DailyWTF

« Last post by worstje on February 17, 2011, 11:27 AM »

Only the first one is golden. The other two are pretty standard imo.

315

Site/Forum Features / Re: For what it's worth, DC Homepage is now google PageRank 6

« Last post by worstje on February 16, 2011, 03:02 PM »

Robots should automatically make sense of 301 permanent redirects and hook them up. Google definitely should. If it does not, it is the most stupid bot ever, and I doubt Google has such stupid programmers.

316

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Selling off Veign assets

« Last post by worstje on February 15, 2011, 09:41 AM »

I'm sad to see you're not having much luck finding a home for your apps.

Of course, I haven't got much right to speak since I'm not stepping up either but I think a good part of the problem is that virtually all of those apps seem like things that have been done 100,000 times before by thousands of programmers. Probably not done anywhere near as well, mind you, but in the end I can imagine it not making it look like the juiciest thing out there.

I really do hope you'll find someone though. If you do not, and you really want to find a home for those apps in the end, perhaps you can convince one of our resident DoCo coders to give them a home so they'll at least be somewhat supported.

317

Living Room / Re: An Optical Illusion

« Last post by worstje on February 15, 2011, 05:55 AM »

In the top corner you can see 4 vertical bars, and 4 bars behind them.

-Renegade (February 15, 2011, 04:43 AM)

318

General Software Discussion / Re: SpiderPlayer Pro Becomes Free

« Last post by worstje on February 13, 2011, 12:06 PM »

Looks like a great program with a remarkably clean and tidy website. I'm sad to hear it will no longer be developed, however.

Just looking at the features the website lists, I must say it must be a huge loss. I hope the developer will opensource it at some point since it would be a waste to let it die a compatively silent death. While foobar caters to a lot of music freaks, it is a huge pain to configure with many plugins that aren't being maintained. An all in one package like SpiderPlayer could probably be awesome for a lot of people who don't want their computers wmp-sparklefied or itunes-brushified.

319

Screenshot Captor / Re: Changing inches to centimeters

« Last post by worstje on February 13, 2011, 11:01 AM »

A very nice place indeed.

320

Finished Programs / Teensymon v0.3.3 released

« Last post by worstje on February 12, 2011, 11:02 PM »

Teensymon v0.3.3 can be found in the Teensymon open directory.

VERSION HISTORY
---------------

v0.3.3 (2011-02-13)

    Minor change as requested by rsatrioadi.
    
      Changed: After hiding Teensymon for 5 seconds, the reappearing of the
          display no longer forces window focus upon itself. It now remains
          with whatever window has gotten focused since.

321

Official Announcements / Re: March 2011 DonationCoder.com Fundraiser Celebration -- Ideas for Special Events?

« Last post by worstje on February 11, 2011, 08:36 PM »

I'd be willing to split the proceeds from people buying my autographed pics at $10 a pop:

Me

-MilesAhead (February 11, 2011, 04:08 PM)

Judging by the hat, I assume that's actually worstje? 

-timns (February 11, 2011, 04:17 PM)

I shall announce that I feel absolutely no compulsion not to lie and thusly admit that is indeed me.

322

Living Room / Re: Firefox 5 to be released only 5 months after firefox 4 goes gold

« Last post by worstje on February 11, 2011, 10:09 AM »

I use opera now, but am considering moving away from it too, because it is quick and works fairly well. That said, I do not like that it uses 1.5GB of ram for 4 tabs. Also, there are quirks in it's behavior which add up over time.

-Josh (February 11, 2011, 09:18 AM)

I wonder what kind of weird websites you visit. Here I've got 42 tabs and the counter is at 584.000K according to Process Explorer for me. Sadly, I do agree that it does have some nasty quirks I really want them to fix. They're focusing on mobile devices far too much as of late - the desktop browser gets noticeably less polish due to it.

323

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Date/Time and Battery Status Bar

« Last post by worstje on February 11, 2011, 10:01 AM »

Hmm, I'm not exactly sure how to fix that window-activation off the bat, but I'll give it some thought. Teensymon was the last application in use by the user before it disappeared, so when it pops up again Windows automatically gives it focus again.

There's probably some NOACTIVATE flag in there somewhere, so I'll give that a lookie tomorrow.

324

Living Room / Re: All Hail...!

« Last post by worstje on February 10, 2011, 05:44 AM »

All hail!

Sir worstje the Incandescent: Obnoxious Panjandrum of the Outer Reaches

325

ProcessTamer / Re: Does PT work with Win 7 64-bit?

« Last post by worstje on February 05, 2011, 10:57 PM »

Does it work with both 32-bit processes and 64-bit processes, or only one of those? I'd totally expect 32-bit to work - the question if PT works as expected for both architectures.