Recent Posts

30026

General Software Discussion / Flashforward Conference and Film Festival: Sep 11-14, 2006

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 02:58 PM »

Flashforward Conference: Sep 11-14, 2006 Austin, Texas

What is the Flashforward Conference and Film Festival?
We bring together the best minds in the Flash design and development community, with an optional intensive workshop day, a three-day conference, and the largest International Flash-related film festival on the planet. With the focus on Flash as a platform, Flashforward offers diverse knowledge and inspiration for everyone in the Flash community, whatever role Flash plays in their life and work. Flashforward is dedicated to providing education, inspiration, information, and community resources via our conference, website, blog, and podcasts.

http://www.flashforwardconference.com/

30027

Living Room / WikiPatents - Community Patent Review Website

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 12:23 PM »

The WikiPatents Community contributes to the US patent system by commenting on issued patents and, soon, pending patent applications.

• Add & vote on prior art
• Analyze market data
• Download PDF patents
• Discuss patents with members

http://wikipatents.com/

from http://battellemedia.com/

30028

Living Room / Re: Macro to replace formatting with html code? Or other process or program...

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 10:13 AM »

there are probably several tools that will let you set up such search+replace projects.. maybe some specific for ms word..
you might also check out this tool from one of the people who entered the BCB contest:
http://www.texttransformer.com/

im curious to hear that you go with in the end, and what others recommend.  keep us informed!

30029

The Form Letter Machine / Re: Assembling e-mail digests for announcement lists

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:55 AM »

i'm quite interested in hearing more about what you would like to do - i'm having a bit of a hard time following it completely, but im quite interested in the idea.  maybe an example would help?

(ps. in case you didn't notice i fixed the bug yesterday)

30030

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: perform random URL queries (Random Submitter)

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:54 AM »

Bruce Schneier (very respected security/crypto guy) on why this basic idea is flawed:
http://www.schneier....08/trackmenot_1.html

30031

Living Room / Re: Chat with God online!

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:49 AM »

i enjoyed reading the conversation.. 

30032

Living Room / Wordy: Flash Word Game Like Tetris

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:43 AM »

Simple and fun word game that combines tetris with word search:

http://www.joytube.com/wordy/

from http://flash.plasticthinking.org/ (excellent flash game announcement site)

30033

Living Room / Re: Free Novel Downloads

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:34 AM »

and some negative reaction to google's stuff from people who have some good points:
http://www.planetpdf...mp;gid=7376&updf

30034

Living Room / Article: How Much System Memory Is Really Enough?

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:22 AM »

From an article by Bill O'Brien:

When it comes to adding memory, we all have to deal with the cost vs. speed equation. So how much memory do you really need? Our tester got some surprising results.

How much memory is enough? That's a question that's bothered me -- and thousands of other computer users -- for years. And so far, I haven't seen too many answers that have really satisfied me.

http://www.techweb.c...?articleID=161300002

from www.digg.com

30035

General Software Discussion / Re: Need Virtual Desktop software recommendations

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:13 AM »

as someone who got used to and fond of the virtual consoles in linux (when linux was text mode only!), and switched between them with alt+f1 through alt+f9, i use VirtuaWin to emulate this (alt+1 through alt+9) and it works great.

30036

Find And Run Robot / Re: Use with removable disks

« Last post by mouser on August 31, 2006, 09:09 AM »

great suggestions;
let me give some more thought to the removable issue - i've just added this functionality almost exactly to my LaunchBar Commander tool, so it shouldnt' be too hard to add it to farr.

the second idea is nice too.. i have to give that a little bit of thought.. sounds like something worth adding to the todo list of farr v2.
the easiest way to do it now is simply add an alias for that program and specify the commandline argument in the alias, then you can just type it and it will find the alias match and launch with argument of your choice (including argument specified in search if you like).

30037

UrlSnooper / Re: URLsnooper didn't work.

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2006, 05:41 PM »

there is some issue with those using ie7 - that could be one reason people are having troubles.

30038

Developer's Corner / Re: Make (and play) your own Xbox game

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2006, 05:39 PM »

First beta is now available for download:
http://msdn.microsof...com/directx/xna/gse/

30039

Living Room / Short Article: 10 Top Tips For Protecting Yourself At Hot Spots

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2006, 02:07 PM »

As many of you know I was away visiting family for a week and connected via wifi wireless networking regularly.  For those of you who don't know much about wireless security (I include myself in this group), you should definitely educate yourself a little about the risks involved and the best way to protect yourself.

I have personally found that using a remote encrypted connection to your home/office pc and doing everything from that pc (writing/reading email, etc.), has been the perfect solution for me and involves the least risk since the only thing in and out of my laptop is the remote connection.  See tip #2 in the article for more on this.

But every time you connect at a hotspot, you're asking for trouble. hotspots are open networks that don't use encryption, which invites hacking and snooping. In addition, when you're on a hotspot you're connected to the same network as your fellow hotspot users, they can potentially weasel their way onto your PC and inflict damage.

http://www.grafdom.c...tid=5&newsid=495

from news.com

30040

General Software Discussion / Re: Jay Is Games: Flash Programming Game Entries are Playable Now

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2006, 01:26 PM »

the winner was just announced:

http://jayisgames.co...nd_the_winner_is.php

the winner chosen was "Clack":
http://fizzlebot.com...to_17.php?puzzleID=7

30041

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / Re: Websites Talking about GTD to get you into the spirit

« Last post by mouser on August 30, 2006, 01:16 PM »

Review of the book "Time Management for System Administrators"
http://www.43folders...08/28/speirs-review/

30042

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Vista Pre-RC1 build available for download

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 11:34 PM »

thanks josh. 

30043

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Hide empty folders

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 11:04 PM »

it's not quite as simple as it seems since lbc doesnt fill menus of folders until they are requested, to minimize resource use - so it generall doesnt know a folder is empy until you click on it.

30044

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Remove *.lnk

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 11:02 PM »

i can add an option for that for those that don't want them shown.

30045

The Form Letter Machine / Re: Sharing user-dictionary spell files between programs

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 11:01 PM »

i could make an option for custom specifying of dictionary file location.
ps i also got your bug report that i introduced a wrapping bug in latest form letter machine; im on it.

30046

General Software Discussion / Re: The Great Software List Site Gets a Big Update

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 08:13 PM »

beautiful new layout as announced on zaine's blog today:

http://www.anova.org/software/index.html
http://www.thegsblog.com/?p=115

30047

General Software Discussion / Article: Is AOL 9.0 Malware?

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 07:32 PM »

August has been a bad month for AOL. The month started with the company posting search histories for over 600,000 of its subscribers. AOL then pulled down the data, apologized, and sacked the people responsible. Now, the latest version of its Internet client software, AOL 9.0, has come under fire from StopBadware.org.
...
AOL 9.0 currently sits in StopBadware.org's "Open Inquiries" section. The advocacy group advises against installing the software because of what it describes as deceptive installation practices, making changes to other software without the user's permission, and failure to uninstall completely.

During the installation process, AOL 9.0 adds the AOL toolbar to Internet Explorer and the AOL Deskbar to the user's taskbar, two practices StopBadware.org finds unacceptable. It also installs a number of additional programs such as QuickTime and RealPlayer without fully disclosing the installation to the user.

http://arstechnica.c...t/20060828-7606.html

30048

Living Room / Re: interesting post on possible manipulation of digg.com

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 07:29 PM »

ps. i am always posting these anti-digg sites (and anti-google sites) because i find so much flawed and troubling about the marketplace of publicity that they operate in, and the incentives to game these systems, and the success of gaming these systems.  however i feel compelled to keep repeating, i regularly check digg, and i use google search - i think they produce great results.  i'd just like to jump off their ship if i can find a better one

30049

Developer's Corner / Re: Brand New Release of HGE (Haaf's Game Engine) - Fantastic Windows 2d Game Engine

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 07:07 PM »

ps. might this be a perfect tool for our Accessibility Game Programming Contest?
https://www.donation....com/Contests/agame/

30050

Developer's Corner / Brand New Release of HGE (Haaf's Game Engine) - Fantastic Windows 2d Game Engine

« Last post by mouser on August 29, 2006, 07:05 PM »

When i went looking for 2d game engines a while ago i was immediately in love with HGE - fast, elegant, beautiful, and just had a nice feeling about it.  It's since gone open source and seen less development, but a new release just came out! woot!

Note that HGE is for 2d and windows only, and it's much more minimal and focused on graphics (and collision) than ancillary stuff, but it sure is sweet if that's what you're into. Donations are requested.

30 August, 2006
HGE 1.6 released. Major new features are long awaited Bitmap Font Builder and string tables support. See Version history for detailed change log. HGE is now open source and is distributed under The zlib/libpng License. Visit HGE at SourceForge.net, your contributions are welcome!

HGE is an easy to use yet powerful hardware accelerated 2D game engine. It is a full featured middleware for all who want to develop commercial quality 2D games rapidly and easily. It covers all imaginable 2D game genres: you could create everything from a simple puzzle to advanced multilayered platformer or strategy without even thinking of any non game logic code! And you don't have to know anything about "window messages", DirectX programming and all that stuff. Instead you can start developing your own game within 15 minutes!

HGE runs on Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, NT, ME, XP and requires DirectX 8.0. It will run even on low-end video cards, including built in video cards such as Intel Solano (i815 chipset). HGE can be used with virtually any C++ compiler including Visual C++, Borland C++, MinGW and Metrowerks Codewarrior.

Version 1.6, 30 August 2006
Texture_Load now has optional third parameter allowing to use automatic mipmapping
Added hgeDistortionMesh methods GetRows and GetCols
Fixed minor bugs in mouse routines
HGE now restricts cursor movement to it's window when a mouse button is pressed
Added Input_IsMouseOver function
Added HGE_RENDERFUNC system state, which allows more correct behaviour in windowed mode
New font file format introduced allowing to use script and artistic fonts
Bitmap Font Builder authoring tool released
Added hgeFont methods SetSpacing and GetSpacing
Added hgeFont method printfb, allowing to render a formatted string into specified rectangle
hgeFont methods Render and printf made more consistent
hgeStringTable class added
hgeResourceManager updated to support hgeStringTable resources and new features of hgeFont
hgeGUISlider now supports vertical sliders
hgeGUIListbox class added
Fixed bug in Stream_Play function, added 3-rd parameter volume
Tutorials updated to show HGE_RENDERFUNC callback usage
Licensing changed to The zlib/libpng License

http://hge.relishgames.com/overview.html