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3151

General Software Discussion / Re: COMPLIMENT: Liquid Story Binder XE - Black Obelisk Software

« Last post by superboyac on December 12, 2010, 12:11 AM »

Ah!  I'm really getting quite arrogant with starting threads lately.  I totally didn't notice that the exact same compliment thread already existed.  Sorry.  I'm really bad with that, I know. 

3152

General Software Discussion / Re: Can we talk about mkv files here please?

« Last post by superboyac on December 11, 2010, 12:16 AM »

I have a lifetime AnyDVD license.

I use a lot of multimedia when creating educational videos.  I love that AnyDVD is just sitting there and lets me use whatever program I want to get clips.  Occasionally, a new release DVD has a copy protection scheme that stumps AnyDVD.  I can't recall an instance, however, where the devs didn't release an update within a week or two that solved the problem.

Disclaimer - I always follow Fair Use guidelines when using copyrighted material in my videos.

-cthorpe (December 10, 2010, 11:29 PM)

That's awesome.  I'll have my license before the week's over.  Thanks so much.

3153

General Software Discussion / Re: Can we talk about mkv files here please?

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 09:48 PM »

Do any of you have any experience with AnyDVD?  I'm thinking of purchasing their lifetime license soon because starting 2011, they won't be offering lifetime licenses anymore.  If I get it, will that solve the potential copyright problems I may run into using stuff like Makemkv to backup my dvd's?
I have to say, I really don't particularly like most of the so called solutions on videohelp and doom9.  I know they get the job done, but they are usually command line things, with difficult to understand settings, no real product pages, horrible interfaces, etc.  I'm perfectly willing to spend $100 to bypass all that headache.

3154

Living Room / Re: Can we compare file transfer protocols?

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 08:07 PM »

Thanks for the discussions so far.  OK, it sounds like maybe I've just had bad experiences with VPN.  I wouldn't mind at all for VPN to be the solution.  What are the pros/cons of VPN vs. FTP (any flavor)?  I'd like to know.

I don't mind if it's complicated to set up, as long as once its set up, it works with minimum headache.  Also, yes, I do prefer instant folder/file access, but I realize that there is going to be some latency and stuff.  That's fine.  I'm not intending to use it as a reliable streaming service or anything.  More like file management and backup.  And I don't want to use a service like Dropbox or skydrive because the file transfer sizes I'm talking about are many gigabytes.  I don't want a middle man, either.  I use dropbox now, and it's good for my personal little files and stuff, but not for my large databases and collections of stuff.  nor do I want those companies even dealing with that stuff of mine.

It sounds like VPN would be worth exploring further.  Maybe my company just hasn't implemented it optimally.  I wouldn't be surprised, our IT hardly has a sense of user-friendliness, which is typical I suppose.

3155

Living Room / Can we compare file transfer protocols?

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 07:05 PM »

I'm trying to get my head around the different file transfer protocols.  I'd like to discuss the pros/cons of them here.  I'm planning on doing some more sophisticated backup procedures next year, along with some business plans, and so forth.  I'd like to create a closed system of file transferring for myself and my friends/business partners that will work well.  By closed, I mean not using other people's servers or services, other than the ISP.

My goal (please read and think about carefully):
Whatever I use, I'd like it to mimic regular, local file management as much as possible.  This means minimal connection/reconnection issues, minimal security obstacles AFTER the initial setup.  Drives, folders, files can be setup to behave just like local files.  In other words, moving and copying and renaming is not quirky just because it's not local.  dragging/dropping works well.  The files/folders can appear in a regular file management program without too much fussing with it.

So, I'm pretty familiar with ftp.  ftp is good and all, but not very secure obviously.  I also don't like how with ftp there's always the reconnection, losing connection issues which are constantly interrupting your workflow.  Even the best ftp programs struggle with this.  I think it's just inherent to ftp's nature.  And it's difficult to copy/move files from local to server folders.

I have limited experience with the other ftp-like services like sftp and secure ftp.  Most of my complaints are the same as with regular ftp.  The only extra complaint I have is with the initial setup and connection.  With the added security, there are more things to do in the beginning like passwords, ports, settings, authentication settings, certificates, etc.  But once it's set up, it's pretty much just like ftp.  So I prefer the added security, but still would like something more elegant.

VPN is something I have recently been exposed to.  It seems to me to be even more of a headache than the ftp varieties.  Certificates, servers, setup is pretty difficult.  I just tried it out at my work (from home) using Cisco's, and it's pretty slow and very unstable as far as losing connection.  It makes it unusable to me.  I'd like something that, once connected, can stay connected with minimum hassle and without me knowing about how it's retaining that connection.  It bothers me to see a dialog or tray icon keep popping up every two minutes while it loses and reconnects to the server.  Very annoying.

Why do all these things have such hard times staying connected?

So what else is there?  Right now, if I had to choose, I would go for sftp.  It comes closest to what I want.  I just wanted to explore all the alternatives.

3156

General Software Discussion / Re: Can we talk about mkv files here please?

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 06:43 PM »

@superboyac
A word of warning though, the movie Iron Man 2 has a protection on it that MakeMKV cannot circumvent. It can make a .mkv file from the movie, but all the chapters are jumbled.

This renders MakeMKV useless as backup software for this movie. Expect that protection to be included in new movie releases.

And that is too bad. I like the fact MakeMKV eliminates one noise source (spinning disc) while retaining all the DVD goodness.

-Shades (December 10, 2010, 05:59 PM)

Interesting.  Do you think it's something that can be circumvented using something like AnyDVD?  I also find it slightly puzzling that even current computers with decent specs still sometimes struggle to playback HD files.  How many more years until large 10+GB HD files can be played smoothly with today's computers?  I often notice slow startup speeds for HD files, troublesome seeking features, and so on.  I understand that full HD is a lot of information to process, but it doesn't make sense to me that an average computer today can't play them.  Does this have anything to do with crippling by the video card or Windows OS?  Or is it truly a very taxing process for the computer that is still pushing the limits of our hardware?

3157

General Software Discussion / Re: Liquid Story Binder: Excellent

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 05:19 PM »

mmm...that Joanne Kelly with the wavy hair...that's amazing.

3158

Living Room / Subtle Facebook tricks

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 04:04 PM »

Since I'm studying, I am getting distracted by things that normally wouldn't distract me .  You know how it goes, anything but studying...

Anyway, I decided to visit my seldom visited facebook profile.  My only purpose is to go there and clean things up and play around with this thing that everyone loves.  So, I went to remove as many applications as possible.  Check this out: facebook does the maximum number of prompts and dialogs to remove an application.  Why?  because they really don't want you to.  Remember people, whenever software makes it hard to do something, it's usually because they don't want you to do it, but they can't come out and just say that.  So here is what happens:
I want to remove an applications like Poke, or whatever weird thing it is.  If you hover the mouse over the application name in the list, an "x" appears which means remove the application.  When you click it, it (of course) asks you if you really want to do this with a Yes/No dialog.  So I say yes, of course.  Then, ANOTHER dialog pops up saying the application was removed with an "okay" button to remove it.

So let's think about this.  It takes 3 clicks to remove the application.  I had about 7 applications, so it took 21 clicks to remove them all.  This is intentional.  of course facebook doesn't want you removing these things because these useless time wasters are the heart of their system.  So they make it as annoying as possible, under the guise that they are "protecting" from accidentally deleting very important things that you need.

3159

General Software Discussion / Re: Liquid Story Binder: Excellent

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 03:23 PM »

Think Artie in Warehouse 13

-40hz (December 10, 2010, 03:12 PM)

[superboyac quietly queues up Warehouse 13...]

3160

General Software Discussion / Re: Liquid Story Binder: Excellent

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 02:18 PM »

Nice summary, 40hz.  Of course you would like the program, I should have known!

The program is sold as a novel writing software, but I think it's pretty helpful for any kind of story writing.  Fiction, nonfiction, comic books.  Heck, even screenplays, except for the particular formatting requirements which other programs do.  I've dabbled in screenwriting a little bit, and LSB could be used to structure the meat of your story before having to format properly using FinalDraft or something like that.

But like 40hz said, you only have to use the modules you like, you obviously don't have to use everything.  What's great is that all of your story ideas will be in one location, with non proprietary formats, and very easy to backup and transfer between computers.

I was thinking that LSB doesn't really do anything that I couldn't setup InfoQube to do (or some other data management software).  But like 40hz said, it's the interface that is helpful.  All the modules are specially designed to help with that particular function, and it's very pretty and fun to use.

Ok, now it's turning into a mini review.  Back to studying!!

3161

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Movie Mode

« Last post by superboyac on December 10, 2010, 12:15 AM »

Just to be sure, before it relaunches the programs, it should check to make sure the programs are not already running.  You may have closed a program without realizing you just minimized it to the tray, or there was some dialog that you had to click on before closing.

3162

General Software Discussion / Can we talk about mkv files here please?

« Last post by superboyac on December 09, 2010, 09:31 PM »

Ever since I started learning about mkv files here, I've been very facinated by them.  The Makemkv software also has helped me decide that this is probably the best choice for me as far as backing up my dvd's go.  I love having everything in a single file (makes it portable!) and I love the fact that mkv is the only format that can retain the additional dvd stuff like commentary tracks, menus, etc.

But I have a lot of mkv related questions.  Not of the format itself, but how players handle it.  How do I use the additional features like the commentary tracks and menus?  Which players handle it well, and how do they do it?  Please don't direct me to the videohelp and doom9, etc., forums as I've been there and haven't been able to find clear answers.  You guys here are very good at clearing things up for me.  Of course, if there is a specific post that is helpful, please let me know.

Let's consider KMplayer, a popular player that we are almost all familiar with.  It has normal previous/next buttons, but that only moves up and down the playlist, not within chapters of a single mkv file.  But then, how do you get the root menu?  How do you navigate with subtitles enable/disable, commentary enable/disable, language changing, etc.?  One of my problems is I don't have a good test mkv file, and I haven't made one myself yet.  It would be nice if someone could point me to a feature-packed mkv file that I can test.  Something with menus, chapters, commentaries, different languages, subtitles...the works, so I can test everything out.

I have not seen anyone using mkv files in this all encompassing way.  I've created my own a few times, but they just had chapters, and I was able to navigate them using right click context menu options that were probably meant for dvd's (I'm talking abotu KMP here).  Most players don't have mkv specific options.  They can play the file, but it's not clear how to access the extra stuff.

So I'd like to discuss this further here.  I'd love to hear of others' experiences who have experience with mkv files.  The idea of mkv files are really cool.  To be able to package dvd's with their entire contents in one file is truly a great thing.  I'm sure part of the reason why it's hard to find good information about it is because of its potential impact to piracy.  If it were extremely easy to convert DVD's to mkv (a la makemkv) it makes piracy of dvd's very easy.  Right now, converting dvd's to single files is a pretty complex thing.  Compression/size is an issue.  audio/video syncing is an issue.  hardly ever will you be able to get all the dvd extras and stuff.  If you go to the forums I mentioned above, a lot of the conversion methods are quite complicated.  They involve multiple softwares, many of which are command line type of applications.  It's pretty hairy stuff.  Anyway, this is not about piracy, I just mentioned it because I feel that is why mkv is a little bit of a hush hush issue.  Commercial companies won't like to promote them.  The big time media players like WMP will probably not support them well because of that.  And that's probably also the reason why casual users don't know much about it, if at all.  Even regular users will come across avi and mpg once in a while, and are familiar with the words, but not mkv.  To me, it seems to be superior in every way to all the other common file formats.  It sure beats backing up your DVD's using ISO images with the annoying AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders.

3163

General Software Discussion / Liquid Story Binder: Excellent

« Last post by superboyac on December 09, 2010, 06:26 PM »

I know I use this board to rant a lot, but I thought I would give a nice compliment to Liquid Story Binder:
http://www.blackobel...tware.com/index.html

This is not a mini-review or anything.  I've been continually impressed with this software for the past couple of years.  I haven't really used it much, but I like just poking around in it and checking things out.  I do plan on using it more next year.  The program itself might have a weird feel to it, in that the interface is pretty modular (lots of windows inside the main window), but it works for its intended purpose.  He's very user friendly: there's a portable version, and the license is a true lifetime license.  I plan on writing more stories next year, and I may end up using this to do so.  I just love it when developers do things the right way and in a customer-friendly way.  I hope he is able to make a good living doing this.

Oh, I just noticed, he is having a 50% off sale currently.  Great deal.  If you plan to write ever in the future I would take advantage of this just in case.  It's only $20 and he seems to be a good dude.

3164

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by superboyac on December 09, 2010, 01:19 PM »

is there an english site?

-techidave (December 08, 2010, 09:33 PM)

unfortunately, no.

-superboyac (December 08, 2010, 09:45 PM)

(see attachment in previous post)
http://www.softella.com/

have you been hanging out with those Russians for too long, boy?
 

-Curt (December 09, 2010, 02:11 AM)

That site has not been updated for years.  Do not think you are getting the latest information or downloads there.  The current stuff is all on the russian site and the russian forum.  Although if you wish to purchase the program, I think you can still do that with the old english site above.

3165

Living Room / Re: I figured something out about Apple's device restrictions: file management.

« Last post by superboyac on December 09, 2010, 01:13 PM »

Some great discussion happening here.  I'm going to have to respond later.  I have to study for a big promotional exam for the next two days.

3166

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 09:45 PM »

is there an english site?

-techidave (December 08, 2010, 09:33 PM)

unfortunately, no.  but just translate it with google, download it.  Once you start it, you can change the language to english in the preferences and everything will be fine.

3167

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 09:19 PM »

Light Alloy is making big progress!  A new beta for v4.5 has been released.  The new features are:
Portable version!  Yes!
Also, it is now being packaged with internal codecs, which a lot of people prefer.  He is also offering the lighter, no-codec version also.  So he has covered all bases.  Great developer.  Fantastic video player.  My favorite general purpose player.
http://www.light-all...y.ru/download_v45up/

Woohoo!

3168

Living Room / Re: I figured something out about Apple's device restrictions: file management.

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 08:43 PM »

Seems to me unlikely that they are likely to make those changes, or to relax their control - a more likely scenario is a more restrictive environment to try and protect their 'products'

-Target (December 08, 2010, 06:27 PM)

We shall see.  As I said previously, my prediction is the opposite.  We can look to this thread to see who was right!
I don't see how Apple will be able to grow at the rate they are currently growing at without making some concessions.  I think if they become MORE restrictive, as you say, they will fail AND there's no way the userbase grows at this rate.

3169

Living Room / Re: I figured something out about Apple's device restrictions: file management.

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 06:09 PM »

I understand man.

I don't think I'm saying Windows is bad.  I love Windows and I'm totally a pc guy.  Here's what I'm saying:  Apple is having a great streak going lately.  If more people start using Apple as we are seeing, they will eventually start compromising their closed system.  Eventually, they will become more and more like the pc stuff.  It's just a matter of time.  Or they will stick to their philosophy and remain closed, but if they do, their growth will eventually plateau.  So I'm assuming they will want to grow.  As more people use it, they will try to do more things with it.  When they run into Apple's wall, they will look for ways around it.  Jailbreaking, hacking, etc.  Apple will have to counter, and that means they will have to relax their restrictions in some way.  But when they do, they will lose some of their control.  There will be more things people will be able to do with Apple products.  There will be more users, more developers, more hardware, more software, etc.  At some point, Apple just won't be able to have control over everything.  It's impossible.  The laws themselves don't allow it.  If Apple's stuff were as common as everything in the pc world, it means that Apple has a monopoly over ALL computing: hardware, software, OS.  It's impossible.

Again, I recommend we stop thinking of Apple as evil and somehow against us.  They don't care.  They just care about retaining their closed system, which is the key to their success.  There's nothing wrong with that.

3170

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: For non-programmers: Editpad is the best text editor (for now!)

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 06:01 PM »

Your welcome!

i used to be that way also, I thought the "look and feel" was not important compared to loads of options.  But as my time becomes more and more valuable, as as the computing world (google, most software) becomes more and more bloated and just a flood of useless information, the look and feel of stuff has become very important.  Information is not the challenge anymore, finding it is.  Everything has become a needle in the haystack problem.  UE is like that: lots of features, but not so easy to tweak everything around.  Editpad is much more elegant in that way.  The stuff you probably need is right there and caters to your intuition.

I'm done with features.  I want elegance now.

3171

Living Room / Re: I figured something out about Apple's device restrictions: file management.

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 05:31 PM »

Well, that's exactly what I'm talking about.  There is NO true file management with Apple.  There can't be.  It's not that treat users like idiots, it's more that Apple NEEDS to retain its closed system.  Without the closed system, Apple will not be able to do most of the things it does.

Now, you are coming at this from our perspective.  We are so used to being able to have pretty much full control over our files, that as soon as you take that away from us, we run into all sorts of issues and frustrations IMMEDIATELY.  It's the heart of what we do.

back to your point, yes, I'm sure Apple's file management is subpar.  But that's because it's something they don't want you to have control of.  And most Apple users don't ever run into file management issues because they don't do that and they don't think about it.  They just press buttons and go.  So there's not as much demand for good file management, so you are not going to have the loads of options and alternatives that we have in the pc world.  The userbase isn't really there, and there aren't many developers focused on it.  But the bottom line is that Apple stuff doesn't really need file management.  We run into this because we are trying to use Apple like we use pc's.  It's frustrating, yes, but that's why we're pc people.  Apple users are frustrated by pc's for the same reason.  They don't care about file management, but you have to have SOME skill with it if you want to be productive with Windows.  Most people are not, and that's why when they use Windows, they have such hard times with drivers, installers, adware, crashes, etc.  They have no idea how to manage their files to prevent such things.

3172

Living Room / I figured something out about Apple's device restrictions: file management.

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 03:45 PM »

Now that I have my first Apple device, the ipad, I am discovering what truly distinguishes Apple from Windows based devices.  Now, i know this will sound obvious to everyone, but it's really not.  I'm talking about fundamental things here.  OK, here it goes.

I was trying to figure out what is the true distinguishing feature between the differences among Apple and Windows stuff.  From our perspectives, Apple is obviously much more restrictive in what you can do than Windows.  But how is this accomplished.  A long list of reasons can be given, and they are all correct.  But the root of it all is file management.  With Apple, file management is the control headquarters.  They do not allow it.  They've built layers into the Mac to make it seem like file management is possible, but it's a few abstraction layers above the Windows experience.  In Windows, we can do anything with our files on the hard drive, including the OS files themselves.  In Apple, you just can't.  That one thing by itself is the big difference.  In my life, I have DOpus open 100% of the time and I am doing file management constantly.  All problems and solutions and work that I do on the PC centers around my ability to be able to do what I wish with my files.  It's the real reason why we can pretty much do anything we want to with Windows.  In Apple, every single frustration and restriction that I have run into had file management at the root of it.  I can't move this file here.  I can't copy this file there.  Where are the files?  Where are the folders?  Where is the OS stored?  What happens to the files I transfer to the device?  How come I have files in one app that I can't access from another app?

It's the root of everything.  I can even extend the discussion beyond the devices themselves and to the users.  When we look at non-computer people and get frustrated or wonder why they don't get this or that which are simple ideas to us, it's because they have no idea about files and folders and what they are how they are used.  it has nothing to do with their general level of intellect.  It's a file management issue.

It's how Apple can keep it's closed system going.  It's why it's so easy to hack Windows and windows software.  We are able to access a level of abstraction (files on the hard drive) that is one level below the actual software and OS.  They can do all they want with protection and keys and what not, but the simple fact that we have access to the hard drive itself means that they can't ever completely hide it away.  With Apple, they never allow access to begin with.  That's why you have to jailbreak stuff to do things like simple file transferring.

It's also the reason why Apple UI is so nice.  There is no NEED for file management.  They've taken care of it for you.  Now, we would like to customize it and we can't, but we're in the minority.  For most people, the UI is extremely nice and easy and, frankly, it's awesome.

But whenever we run into an issue with Apple that feels liek, "Argh! Why can't I just do this?!" it's because you are not allowed to do file management.  That's the reason.

3173

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: For non-programmers: Editpad is the best text editor (for now!)

« Last post by superboyac on December 08, 2010, 11:09 AM »

cyberdiva, it's not due to the number of features that made me claim that Editpad is better.  UE has more features than Editpad by far.  I just prefer the way everything is laid out in Editpad.  The interface is cleaner and more intuitive.  The preferences and feature-tweaking is also more elegant.  I just think it's designed better than UE, even though UE may be able to do more, technically speaking.  The developer for Editpad is just one of those "good" programmers in my eyes.  He writes very good stuff just in general.

3174

Living Room / Re: ESPN AutoPlay settings are fake

« Last post by superboyac on December 07, 2010, 08:22 PM »

Google does the same thing to me. I always have to adjust my settings to display more than 10 results per page, but somehow it always eventually gets reset back to 10 results, even though I'm logged into my Google account. It ticks me off.

EDIT: In fact I just tried it again. I go to the settings page and set it to 100 results and click save. Then a pop up says my settings have been saved. Then it takes me back to the Google search page and only shows 10 results. ARGH! It used to at least keep my settings for a search or two, but now it doesn't even save it long enough for a single search.

-Deozaan (December 07, 2010, 06:44 PM)

me too!!  I swear...this shit pisses me off way too much sometimes.  What's worse is that if I even think about it for 30 seconds, I realize how intentional all of this is, which makes me even madder.  I'd be less annoyed if it was just a small overlooked mistake, but all this stuff is intentional.  Google will not really let you save that setting because it means fewer "next page" clicks, which means fewer adds on the top sides of google.

3175

General Software Discussion / Re: Fastest Audio Converter

« Last post by superboyac on December 07, 2010, 12:08 PM »

dbpoweramp is the best.  But it's not free.  Just FYI.