Recent Posts

3276

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.

3277

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.

3278

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 Superseded by XP-Mode, but still not very good.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.

3279

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

3280

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

3281

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.

3282

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« Last post by Ath on March 05, 2011, 09:24 AM »

It made me think of the "AT-AT" machine from Star Wars:
(image in quoted post)

-mouser (March 05, 2011, 08:13 AM)

Hey, what's that grey-man robot playing with (hints at avatar)

3283

Post New Requests Here / Re: Drag&Drop to move File/Folder, but leave a Shortcut

« Last post by Ath on March 05, 2011, 09:20 AM »

That 'task' is accomplished using a left-mouse drag, holding down the control key on your keyboard... (My Windows calls it 'copy', adding a small + to the icon during the drag action).

3284

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: [First look] Scrivener Beta 017 - Mini-Review

« Last post by Ath on March 05, 2011, 06:40 AM »

Thank you tomos, for this fine [First look], very well done!

3285

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

« Last post by Ath on March 05, 2011, 04:47 AM »

Can Winbuttons be made to recognise the "main" program that has focus - and then change the buttons displayed?

-nudone (March 05, 2011, 04:15 AM)

ATM, it's only sort-of 'context-aware' to other WinButtons instances, that have passed their form-handle(s) (using :hndlist: variable) to all instances in the chain, to be hidden when the -hide command option is used. So using the supplied demo configuration, Click: 'Submenu 5 extra words', 'Run & Wait', 'Push 2nd', then the WinButtons -? help-message is shown, while all 3 instances of WinButtons showing the menu-chain are hidden.
It's now rather static, in that each configuration-file has 1 set of buttons that is displayed on the screen and then waiting for the user to interact with it. Making it this kind of application-aware is quite a different approach, but I'll investigate it. Sounds interesting, indeed.

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.

could Winbuttons be made to work on more than one touchscreen at a time

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

It can do that already, just pass it an ini file with button definitions (-f parameter can be used for clarity, but not required), using explicit top and left values (or on the commandline using -t and -l parameters), multiple instances should run happily side by side.

3286

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

« Last post by Ath on March 05, 2011, 03:44 AM »

Just a case of waiting for nudone to see this post, isn't it? 

-cranioscopical (March 04, 2011, 02:09 PM)

Yoohoo!  nudone!

Looky what we got for you

-4wd (March 05, 2011, 01:35 AM)

Guess he hurried to the shop to get one (or two), so he can brag write about it here

3287

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

« Last post by Ath on March 05, 2011, 03:34 AM »

There's only one real way to eventually get rid of that behavior: Complaints at the suppliers e-mail address, forum, guestbook, support-line, etc.

Being around the Inno Setup newgroups for years, this has been discussed often and long, and the general consensus over there is: If a web-page is to be shown, it should be optional (using a checkbox), and If it's opened, it should use the system default browser.
So there is hope that more and more Inno Setup installers give the user the option to open a web-page, instead of just doing that without asking (Skype and Oracle Java installers come to mind )

3288

Finished Programs / Re: Idea: New Folder by F-key for Windows 7

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 03:39 PM »

Welcome, Brian,

This is my first post/request/idea, so I hope I am doing this right 

-Brian De Braganza (March 04, 2011, 03:35 PM)

You started off just fine

3289

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

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 03:35 PM »

We have another milestone here:

3290

General Software Discussion / Re: DVCS ?

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 03:30 PM »

I probably shouldn't but I'm currently looking at Git.

-Armando (March 04, 2011, 03:19 PM)

Oh yes, you should, if you have the time, resources and interest in it.
Making a more educated choice now (early/pre-start) is way better than to change half way through your project, if you then discover a feature in the other solution you absolutely must have, for whatever reason.

3291

Living Room / Re: The March 2011 6th Anniversary Fundraiser Has Begun! Cheer for Victory Thread

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 03:18 PM »

Oh, I scribbled a small message on my blog about my coding snack of today (small self-promotion )

3292

General Software Discussion / Re: Temporary Toggled Port Blocking

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 03:13 PM »

It took a while, but I've found the thread I mentioned, and it has a solution as well

3293

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

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 02:06 PM »

Thanks for the thanks

3294

Living Room / Re: A Point About Grammar

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 02:04 PM »

So, in future, I'll go for a few bottles of each beverage. That should fix it!

-cranioscopical (March 04, 2011, 01:58 PM)

3295

Living Room / Re: Are *you* Computer Literate?

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 01:59 PM »

At first scan I though it was for real, but then the pun began

3296

General Software Discussion / Re: Temporary Toggled Port Blocking

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 10:23 AM »

What if you just shut down all the apps & services that do other internet connections? AFAIR, there's an app for that, made just recently, to stop stuff when watching a video, but I haven't been able to find that thread yet .

3297

General Software Discussion / Re: Temporary Toggled Port Blocking

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 09:59 AM »

There's a Microsoft KB article about IPsec installation and usage. That's able to block/unblock, but I haven't read enough of the details to see if it can also properly list whether the ports are actually transferring data.

3298

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

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 07:43 AM »

Now I got to give myself a touch-screen for my next birthday, so I can test it's original use-case

3299

General Software Discussion / Re: Solving Issues - Pain and More Pain

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 07:08 AM »

XML specifications that are massively large, like that for a web.config file, are simply unmanageable, but not because they are XML. They're unmanageable because they're so complex, and errors aren't readily apparent sometimes.

-Renegade (March 04, 2011, 07:02 AM)

That's my biggest fear with .NET stuff, that I mess up all those massive and complex gazillion attribute elements, by making one trivial typo
And the error messages thrown aren't helpful at all, usually it's something like "Initialization error" or "Exception was thrown..." without any useful stacktrace.

3300

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

« Last post by Ath on March 04, 2011, 06:46 AM »

I've just posted my Coding Snack over here

I might be a bit early for US standards, but I'm in the Europe timezone, so it's already past noon here