Recent Posts

3251

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: A Custom Page for Inno Setup showing DoCo info and donation benefits

« Last post by Ath on March 10, 2011, 02:46 PM »

Hi,

Today worstje came with the great idea of adding a custom Donation Coder page to the JottiQ (Inno Setup) installer (I helped him finish that by adding the .NET/VC++ runtime dependency stuff), to be featured in the next release of JottiQ.
This page should show a text with/including 1 or 2 links that would promote this wonderful site, and convince anyone even slightly interested into making at least a visit to the site, and ofcourse consider to donate while visiting.

The custom page I'll quite easily mock up (this weekend I'll have time for that, it'll be a free 'plug-in' for all dc members using Inno Setup),
it's the text that should go in there that's bugging me a little.

I could copy/paste the text from the left column of the Donation page, but that's quite long to show while pressing next, next, finish during the installation process. I firmly oppose to adding a time-delay to that page (though not impossible; it could even be a delay for the 1st pass only, even when passing multiple times), but all the other apps/installers adding delays or other tricks (scrolling down the entire Windows NT 4 EULA during install to be able to press F8 to continue, comes to mind , and the silly WinZip shareware page where you press 1 of 3 buttons to continue, I often find on co-worker PC's), still these EULA/Shareware pages are not read in the way the supplier had in mind.

If there is an official "short version" of the Donation page text available, I'll be happy to use that, if not: any advise is more than welcome.

For those that haven't noticed, English is not my native language, so any spelling or grammar bloopers would have to be fixed as well

It's a bit of a pity that nobody, including myself, came with this idea earlier, so it could have been used for all apps released during the fundraiser (that need an installer), but when done right (and I intend to do that...) it's usable for more than this fundraiser alone.

3252

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: howto+script for android phone as 5 action programmable PC remote

« Last post by Ath on March 10, 2011, 05:28 AM »

Hm, I'll try to use/combine this asap with WinButtons

3253

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Ath on March 10, 2011, 03:35 AM »

Oh, another special number:

3254

Developer's Corner / Re: Automatic Updater

« Last post by Ath on March 10, 2011, 01:48 AM »

Hm, sounds just like... DcUpdater

And it also looks like a solution looking for a problem

3255

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)

« Last post by Ath on March 09, 2011, 01:29 AM »

Wouldn't using the Windows standard internet/proxy settings be the right way to go here? Some of the browsers (IE, Chrome) use these settings to connect to the internet as well, AFAIK.

3256

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

« Last post by Ath on March 08, 2011, 05:39 PM »

There is color (back) in the darkness already , but now I gotta find another itsy bitsy of information on where to fetch the current active font-size used. It's there somewhere, but I'm out of time for today

3257

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

« Last post by Ath on March 08, 2011, 04:36 PM »

It's actually that the colors for buttons no longer show (but background color still does... ), now that I've switched to GUIOnEventMode (that was a message-loop that only fires if a message for 'me' is available).
The detection of the currently active app, and switching the set of buttons, is already working quite fine

3258

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

« Last post by Ath on March 08, 2011, 03:59 PM »

Just an update,

• I'm a bit later then I promised with my next release, but I'll get to that in a minute...
• I'm still testing with the buttonarrangement settings and ironing out the last minor bugs. Placement has to be just right when combining several kinds of smaller buttons in place of 1 big button.

What I got so far for this: (smaller buttons)

• 2 buttons horizontal or vertical
• 3 buttons horizontal or vertical
• 4 buttons equally divided
• 6 buttons arranged 3x2 or 2x3
• 9 buttons equally divided
• And a big button spanning 2 standard buttons

And the smasher that is taking some more time:

• A set of buttons depending on the active application...

I'm fighting with the colors (disappearing) now, as it's obviously in beta, but I'll report back soon.

3259

Official Announcements / Re: What DonationCoder.com Would Do with a Two Million Dollar Donation

« Last post by Ath on March 08, 2011, 03:45 PM »

This is a post that all Billionaires should read carefully.  The rest of you can skip it.

-mouser (March 08, 2011, 03:31 PM)

And what happens if we don't

3260

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: Stoic Joker's (File & Folder) Fix When

« Last post by Ath on March 08, 2011, 05:19 AM »

Nice, Stoic Joker, kudo's

3261

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

« Last post by Ath on March 07, 2011, 04:16 PM »

So, Mouser, is the proposal that you send the Cody replacement around to deserving members?
No wonder the fundraising is going so well.

-Dormouse (March 07, 2011, 04:14 PM)

Hey, you where not supposed to guess that...

3262

Living Room / Re: When you make your 100'th Post

« Last post by Ath on March 07, 2011, 09:10 AM »

And just shortly after reaching the 1000 milestone, timns made a more binary milestone:

3263

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

« Last post by Ath on March 07, 2011, 09:07 AM »

@nosh, @PhilB66, @Ath,
You've all been moved to the questionable conversation list  .

-barney (March 07, 2011, 08:53 AM)

Why, because we are (hetro) males that like the looks of these fine young-ladies?

3264

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

« Last post by Ath on March 07, 2011, 03:40 AM »

Both would be just fine, IMHO

3265

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

« Last post by Ath on March 07, 2011, 01:39 AM »

Does Internet Explorer (most other browsers have other mechanisms for auth.proxies!) present you a proxy-login-page when you start browsing, or is it automagically providing the proper credentials to the proxy?

3266

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 01:11 PM »

Well, and then there is the issue of support...



I use an employer paid-for Workstation license, but I've never even once used the support options available, either it's found in the VMWare forums, or googling, or in a just released update.

3267

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 11:50 AM »

There are screen-savers with pretty ladies that can do the inside of your screen. You could equip them with magnetic double-side window-cleaners

3268

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 11:48 AM »

Workstation has multiple snapshots (and gets earlier updates), which is quite usable when testing several phases of a software installation...

3269

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 10:16 AM »

VMware - difficult to use the free version (by comparison to the others) or expensive to buy the Workstation edition but with best hardware support. You can download VMWare Server for free and set up a VM and then use VMWare Player for simpler use by your father-in-law.

-Carol Haynes (March 06, 2011, 05:10 AM)

VMWare Player 3 and up allows you to easily create complete virtuals from the ground up, no need to get the (quite outdated) Server version first.

3270

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 10:13 AM »

That looks perfect. One extra thing to ask though, could the background (behind the buttons) be a user defined colour - or just black - or even a user defined graphic? Just black would be the first option.

-nudone (March 06, 2011, 07:02 AM)

Never thought about that until now you bring it up
I can add an option for that, it'll be in the 1.1 update I'll publish probably around tomorrow night (CET) (won't be working on it much today any more), it'll get the same color options the buttons have.
And the 1/3 button size I got also finished.

3271

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: an app to stop installers from launching web browsers and opening pages

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 04:44 AM »

You can hardly block internet access, as a lot of installers often fetch parts to install from the internet, check for updates during install, or register your copy with the supplier based on account information entered during install.

3272

General Software Discussion / Re: which is the best free virtualization software?

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 04:40 AM »

My opinion:
VirtualPC 2007: Total crap. Superseded by XP-Mode, but still not very good.
VirtualBox: Good, but still has some minor issues on hardware-related (most USB connections) side, and sometimes performance issues.
VMWare: Good, some performance issues, but the best hardware support, and actually good working USB support.
For all virtualized machines: Don't expect any descent graphics performance, compared to the same oS directly on the hardware!

If you want to run a lot of different VM's, get your host on Windows 7 x64 (SP1 strongly advised!) (I see why you want to stay on XP for now, but just upgrade to W7x64 ASAP)  with enough memory (8GB or more), and virtualize all other OS variations.

is there anything that will allow you to run the Mac OS X on a Windows machine?

-techidave (March 05, 2011, 05:35 PM)

Apple is not allowing you to do that.

3273

Living Room / Re: Win 7 XP mode

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 04:29 AM »

Wouldn't getting VirtualBox or one of the free VMWare options be better than XP-Mode? The big downside is ofcourse you need a legitimate XP license to install as a virtual inside it, but there are 'manuals' for installing the XP-Mode session (legitimate if you own Win7 HomePro or better, AFAIK) into that on the interweb.

But if it's a graphical based game you're already hosed, as that will run with lousy performance in any of the virtualized systems

3274

General Software Discussion / Re: A way to use DC products on Android?

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 04:22 AM »

What got me thinking was Ath's WinButtons for the March Fundraiser:  looked to be handy on the Nook's touch screen when not reading books.

-barney (March 05, 2011, 09:15 PM)

That's what got me thinking also, but it could eventually (finally) work out into my first Android project, I've been planning for > 6 months now, ever since I got my Android phone

3275

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: On Screen Button That Sends Keyboard Commands

« Last post by Ath on March 06, 2011, 04:08 AM »

could the buttons be made irregular sizes, so maybe you could have the standard button layout, and then some of those buttons were doubled up (connected to each other) and other buttons were split in half, or thirds, or quarters.

-nudone (March 05, 2011, 04:26 AM)

That's quite a challenging (but interesting) feature to implement, I'll certainly think about it, and report back later.

-Ath (March 05, 2011, 04:47 AM)

I'll show a teaser for this feature:


The same demo-items as with the previous screenshots, just added a 'buttonarrangement' option to some buttons.
Still got to implement 'third-size' option.