Recent Posts

3351

LaunchBar Commander / Re: LBC is using up nearly one of my cores on idle use

« Last post by superboyac on October 15, 2010, 11:11 AM »

Didn't you know?  LBC is collecting all of your personal data and sending it back to mouser.  Once he gets enough information, he will deploy a literal, physical Mouser Commander-Robot who will launch a full-scale war against Google for the sole possession of all information.  It's going to be epic.

3352

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

« Last post by superboyac on October 15, 2010, 10:06 AM »

I've used the Linux version since it arrived way back without problems. And, it has all the extensions I was using with Firefox. Here are my favs:

AdBlock
Same as Firefox. CTRL+SHIFT+K lets you kill the code for any ad. CTRL+SHIFT+L lets you unblock something.

FlashBlock
Invaluable for silencing Flash videos. Click the transparent outline to make video appear and play.

Personalized Web
Also serves as an ad and Flash blocker, but more importantly, you can customize your font selection here.

Smoothscroll
Make scrolling as smooth and as fast as you want.

Session Manager
Save browsing sessions of open tabs.

Chromey Calculator
Mimics all the functions of the Google Calculator. Handy when I'm on the phone with a vendor.

Quick Extensions
Opens a page that lists all your extensions and lets you manage them from there.

Untiny
Get the original URL of any shortened URL. It expands most bit.ly addresses in Twitter; others it's a copy/paste is all.

AutoPatchWork
Automatically loads the next page and inserts into current page when you reach the end of the page, as Opera does.

There are a dozen others that I use only rarely and don't need, but these I like and do the job of blocking everything.

-zridling (April 22, 2010, 01:46 AM)

Nice list.  Man, I missed your Windows years!  I probably visit your archived great software list more often than I'd care to admit.

3353

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

« Last post by superboyac on October 15, 2010, 08:45 AM »

Yeah, some of the thinking is bizarre in some of these applications. I really like Splash Lite video player.  I and a few other people have been bugging them on their forum for PGS subtitle support.  The thing is an HD player without PGS subs support!! And they don't even respond!! It's really weird.

The other thing is they have this weird fashion sense of black background with navy blue controls.  Like, I feel like a blind man with a cane mousing around until I happen to hit a control.  One line of code they could have user adjustable background color!! But no!! That would be cheating!!!

-MilesAhead (October 15, 2010, 12:41 AM)

Don't get me started, Miles....don't get me started.

3354

General Software Discussion / "Search Everything" with saved searches would be cool.

« Last post by superboyac on October 14, 2010, 12:40 PM »

We all know and love the Search Everything program.  It's awesome because it's super-fast, not bloated, and does the job well.  The one thing I'm missing from it is the ability to do some kind of saved searches.  For example, I'd like a one-click access to my main categories of files: music, videos, documents, etc.  It would be very beneficial to be able to save searches that are used a lot.  For Everything, i often have to go into the preferences to turn drives on/off when I don't want them to be scanned.  Even though it's fast, it does take a while to index several drives with several terabytes of data.  So it would be more efficient to have saved searches that are very easily accessible.

Does anyone know of a possible solution?  This problem reminded me of Archivarius.  In Archivarius, I like how you can set up different databases and choose the one you want to search in a simple drop-down box on the main window.  We need something like that for Everything.  I guess I can just use Archivarius, but I don't want a full indexer, just a filename indexer like Everything.

3355

General Software Discussion / Re: Cross platform, portable Onenote-like software?

« Last post by superboyac on October 14, 2010, 11:13 AM »

About Evernote, which is cross-platform (at least Mac-PC), I just worry about the fact that your data is also online (from what I have understood) : is this the case, or can you keep everything locally ?

-MerleOne (October 14, 2010, 11:07 AM)

I mistakingly thought that for years also.  It's not true.  The truth is Evernote does both.  it stores your data locally AND on their website.  The program syncs itself as you add stuff to it.  I used to not like the idea of it, but it's actually really nice.  You have the option to use evernote locally on your pc, with no internet connection necessary.  But because it syncs, you can also access your data from a web interface if you are on other computers.  And you can also access it using a mac, iphone, ipad.  It's pretty darn cool.

3356

General Software Discussion / Re: How to quickly autonumber text lists?

« Last post by superboyac on October 14, 2010, 10:47 AM »

Nice!  I found a screenshot:

As you can see, it's very flexible.  I can have a static prefix and/or suffix.  I can set what number it should start at, and also the step increments.  The "repeat" option mya not apply in this case.  That setting is for you to indicate how many times this cycle should be repeated, but in the case of text lists, you probably always want it going until it reaches the end of the list.

What's really great about the tool above is that I can even enter a letter like "a" in the starting box and it will increment the list using letters instead of numbers (a..b..c..d...etc).  It would be nice to have the option to do numbers, letters, or a custom mix of both.  Sometimes I want outline numbering:
1.1.1
1.1.2
1.1.3

Sometimes you want a mix:
A-1
A-2
A-3

But with the dialog above, all that can be taken care of.  In the example above, I would put "A-" in the prefix and that would work.  In the outline example, I'd put "1.1." in the prefix.  And so forth.

3357

General Software Discussion / Re: How to quickly autonumber text lists?

« Last post by superboyac on October 14, 2010, 10:37 AM »

Do you ever have need to zero-pad the numbering?

-skwire (October 14, 2010, 10:05 AM)

The more flexibility, the better.  Yes, there should be an option to zero-pad in cases of large lists or if you just want the numbering column to look visually aligned.  I'm like that, sometimes I just want all my numbers lining up for no reason other than I just like it.

It should also have the option to start from any given number, letter, or roman numeral.

You know what??  I have this autocad utility that has a renumbering function.  I'm going to find it and post a screenshot because the interface elements are probably very close to what we would want for our situation here.

3358

General Software Discussion / Re: How to quickly autonumber text lists?

« Last post by superboyac on October 14, 2010, 09:58 AM »

It really wouldn't take much to write a quickie Coding Snack to cover this.  May I assume these are simple text lists?  Not some crazy-ass formatted Word doc mumbo-jumbo?

-skwire (October 14, 2010, 09:47 AM)

Yes, just text.  No styling whatsoever.  It's all cut and pasted back and forth between applications.

3359

General Software Discussion / Re: How to quickly autonumber text lists?

« Last post by superboyac on October 14, 2010, 09:38 AM »

Often when I write, I make lists.  I number the lists manually.

-superboyac (October 13, 2010, 04:49 PM)

out of curiousity, what software do you use to write the lists?

-AndyM (October 14, 2010, 09:15 AM)

Well, I don't use a special software for writing lists.  I'm just always coming across situations where I have to RE-number lists that I or somebody else has already made.  These lists are in Word, emails, notes, etc.

3360

General Software Discussion / Re: How to quickly autonumber text lists?

« Last post by superboyac on October 14, 2010, 09:35 AM »

hmmm...pspad and boxer are both good, but still missing significant elements.  In pspad, I still can't enter a 'tab' between the number and text.  I guess that's what it all boils down to:  customizeable characters before/after the numbering.

Maybe this is a regex thing?

3361

General Software Discussion / How to quickly autonumber text lists?

« Last post by superboyac on October 13, 2010, 04:49 PM »

I'm looking for efficient ways to autonumber any kind of text list (in other words, I'm not looking for a file renamer).  Often when I write, I make lists.  I number the lists manually.  This is because the autonumbering features in Word are bad.  And I also number things in a lot of other programs manually.  So I need a general text-only way to autonumber lists.

I tried TextMonkey.  It has autonumbering features.  The problem with it is that I can't specify what characters (or tabs) to isnert between the number and the actual sentence.  I need to be able to control that.  Sometimes I want one space, sometimes two, sometimes a tab, sometimes a bunch of weird symbols.

I'm currently looking at the different text editors.  Sometimes, each program has cool, nifty features built in like this.  I haven't found one that can do autonumbering yet.  Can anyone recommend anything?

3362

General Software Discussion / Re: Please recommend a good "shopping cart" website widget

« Last post by superboyac on October 09, 2010, 03:27 PM »

So this is very interesting.  There's a lot more involved here than I initially anticipated.

First thing I noticed is that a lot of website design places offer complete website e-commerce solutions.  One of the heavy hitters out there seems to be BigCommerce.  So most of these places offer just about every feature you can imagine.  EXPECT for the full payment processing services INCLUDING major credit cards.

So, of course, I began to wonder what makes the credit card thing such an obstacle.  The reason why is because that's an arrangement I would have to make with the credit card companies.  Meaning, I need to set up accounts with them and the method with which I'm going to use them to process payments.  So it's hard for the website development companies to just have a ready-made module in place to handle all the payment processing.  It would mean they'd have some cooperative agreement in place with all the credit card companies, which I don't see happening.

Anyway, so I'm trying to find the best combo of website design PLUS payment processing that is the EASIEST and the least amount of useless monthly fees.  The monthly fees I am willing to shell out for are the payment processing with the credit card companies, and the hosting of the website and bandwidth.  I DON'T want to pay monthly for what simply amounts to be a one-time simple website design.  I consider that to be independent of hosting.  The only thing I'm worried about is that nothing exists that is easy and a one time fee.  So the compromise will be that I'll pay monthly fees for things that I don't consider to be monthly services, but at least it will be super easy.

Those are my thoughts so far.

3363

General Software Discussion / Please recommend a good "shopping cart" website widget

« Last post by superboyac on October 09, 2010, 01:07 PM »

I'm looking for a shopping cart widget that can plug into a small business website I'm working on.  Can any of you recommend one?

The website is being deisgned using squarespace.com's design tools.  But they don't have a payment widget.  I'm looking for something that can process al the major credit cards and paypal, and maybe amazon and whatever else.  I don't know how all of this works.  I'm hoping that I can find something to just plug into the website and use easily.

Thanks.

3364

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by superboyac on October 05, 2010, 09:20 AM »

nudone, I'm closely following your tablet saga.  I hear that from a lot of tablet owners: the screen is not bright enough.  i think most of the consumer models suffer from that.  They figure, we'll give you a touchscreen, but at the expense of a good screen.  I've heard the higher, business end models are better, like the newer Motion tablets, the HP 2470p, and the new Panasonic Tougbook CF-C1.  I think my favorite of them so far is the Toughbook.
I'm really hoping these tablets take off in the next year or two.

3365

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by superboyac on October 04, 2010, 05:12 PM »

FYI, I went to my annual John Pizzarelli concert a few weeks ago with some friends.  He comes once a year here, and I go every year.  One of my friends, throughout the whole concert, was secretly texting back and forth on his phone.  During songs, in between breaks...the whole time.  He didn't go more than 2 minutes without looking at his phone, which means he didn't listen to any song all the way through.  So between he and I:
Who was more efficient?
Who was more human?
Who experienced true human pleasure?
Who noticed something beautiful?

3366

Living Room / Re: Am I the only one who finds the new Apps-based world boring?

« Last post by superboyac on October 04, 2010, 05:09 PM »

I currently work at a pretty decent tech company staffed with intelligent, nice, hardworking people, and most of them are absolutely glued to their iPhones. If there's a spare second on an elevator ride or five seconds wait in a line, they're staring at that little screen.

I bet they're much more productive for it, I really do, because of the connectivity of the thing, and all the miracles you can accomplish with it. But me, when I step away from my desk, I'm done looking at screens, and I'm done working for the five minutes it takes for a bathroom break or a wait in line for coffee. Email can wait, text messages can wait, the whole business can wait until I get back to my chair. I don't need constant updates of everything.

And I have absolutely no interest in cute little apps made for those 30-second stretches of time. Good god man, I don't have many thoughts in my head, but the ones I have there, I'm pretty grateful for. Video games, video streaming, and constant internet activity have driven me to crave distraction, I don't need anymore stuff calling for my attention!

And I'm kind of sad about this, because I feel like I'm lacking compared to these people.

-doctorfrog (October 04, 2010, 04:20 PM)

I wouldn't say you are sad.  You are not missing on any true experiences because you are not completely mobile with your computing.  In fact, I would argue exactly the opposite.  THEY are missing out on real experiences by needing to be glued to their phones.  I saw this quote in a forum related to this:
"Facebook is to socializing, what masturbation is to sex."

You see, most people think that more efficiency always means better.  But that is not true.  I even remember seeing a Droid commercial this weekend where they had some guys arms turn into robotic arms as soon as he touched the Droid phone, and they touted that the Droid will turn you into an "efficiency machine" or something along those lines.  I thought the whole idea was very sad.

There's something that is truly human about being able to enjoy the "absurd" pleasures of life (as my friend likes to say).  We are not robots.  There's nothing efficient about sitting in a canyon and staring at the view in front of you.  But it's beautiful.  That's because efficiency is not beautiful.  There's nothing efficient about watching a 3+ hour opera called the Marriage of Figaro.  But it's beautiful.

There's nothing beautiful about constantly texting forgettable phrases back and forth for the rest of your life.  but it sure is efficient...I suppose.

3367

General Software Discussion / Re: What's a good way to embed video/audio in a pdf-like transferable document?

« Last post by superboyac on October 04, 2010, 03:42 PM »

pdf with embedded flash, or as a regular html page saved as .mht

-katykaty (October 04, 2010, 03:27 PM)

I'm going to try with the pdf first.  If it works well, I'll be ecstatic.  i'll post my results later.  Thanks!

3368

General Software Discussion / Re: What's a good way to embed video/audio in a pdf-like transferable document?

« Last post by superboyac on October 04, 2010, 11:42 AM »

Haven't tried it, since I'm allergic to Web services

-barney (October 04, 2010, 10:57 AM)

me too.

I think pdf can do it if the video is converted to flash.  I'm going to give it a try.

3369

Living Room / Re: Best Free and Pay FTP Client

« Last post by superboyac on October 04, 2010, 10:56 AM »

cuteftp can also do it, but I use filezilla.  Why is FTPES not a standard option on ALL ftp software?  What's the deal with that?  I didn't know TC had it!  Nice!!  Maybe I'll use TC to manage my dc website files.  I don't like most ftp programs specifically because I prefer to deal with my files like I do in file managers.  Nice!!!

3370

General Software Discussion / What's a good way to embed video/audio in a pdf-like transferable document?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2010, 11:28 PM »

What is a good way to transmit a document over the internet to someone that is like pdf except I can also embed video and audio.  All in one neat package.  Meaning, I want to be able to write some text, and then have a video inserted in the middle of the text where I really want it to be.  Kind of like a portable web page.  I know a lot of our normal document packages support embedding video but they are problematic usually.  I don't want to get into the details of all the problems, but I'd like to hear some suggestions.

3371

General Software Discussion / Re: Another reason to drop Kaspersky?

« Last post by superboyac on October 03, 2010, 03:48 PM »

They are making the program too bloated.  There's no reason why the program needs current hardware to run.  It's not like it's the latest gaming engine or anything.  If it ran fast 5 years ago, it should run even faster.  It's not like AV suites do anything different now compared to 5 years ago.  They can do it, they just don't care about it.  And not enough of us make a stink about it to make them care, so that's how software eventually becomes bloated.

And the program is getting worse.  The last two version don't "react" properly, in my opinion.  There are many times when I'll click to update the signatures, and it lets you press the button, but nothing happens.  Then it starts several minutes later.  And the download speed of those few megabytes of signatures is really slow.  And sometimes, it will detect something, and that big button turns red.  So I click on it to fix it, I confirm "Neutralize" or whatever option is shown, and even after confirming a couple of times, nothing happens.  Then I keep clicking it and nothing happens.  The button stays red.  Then i come back a few minutes later and it's green again.  But I have no idea what is happening.  Am I crazy to expect something to happen when I click a big huge red button that says "Fix it Now!"??  I hate bloat so freaking much.

I get such enormous pleasure when I find a software that is simple and fast.  I love it when I click on things and the reaction time is really fast.

3372

Living Room / Re: Recommend some music videos to me!

« Last post by superboyac on September 30, 2010, 12:28 PM »

Anyone can probably enjoy these two clips of genius.  It combines my favorite music (Count Basie) with some of my favorite comedy (Jerry Lewis, Family Guy).

The original from the movie, "The Errand Boy":
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=8MA3406YJUg

The Family Guy version:
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=bkJ6sJ1WD3I

3373

Living Room / Re: Tipping - Why does this appear to be a "requirement"?

« Last post by superboyac on September 30, 2010, 09:10 AM »

Interesting article on salon.com today about tipping:
http://www.salon.com...iters_for/index.html

"A veteran server reveals how we really don't care about the service when we tip, and how he makes more money..."

-mouser (September 30, 2010, 08:30 AM)

Fascinating article.  So much psychology there.

3374

General Software Discussion / Re: Another reason to drop Kaspersky?

« Last post by superboyac on September 30, 2010, 09:06 AM »

 

3375

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Quality Comparison: 8 x freeware PDF Readers / Viewers

« Last post by superboyac on September 29, 2010, 04:33 PM »

superboyac - are you still using Bluebeam? Or have you switched to Adobe Acrobt?

-Darwin (September 29, 2010, 03:29 PM)

I don't use Bluebeam for just viewing.  So that means it's not associated wit my pdf extension for double-clicking.  Bluebeam is overkill for just viewing because it's a very big program.  I still use Bluebeam exclusively for any kind of editing, it's the best for that.  But for viewing only, you want something with a very fast loading time and nice navigation features.  PDF-XChange is the best for that in my opinion.