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3476

Living Room / My portable HTPC project

« Last post by superboyac on September 12, 2010, 05:27 PM »

I am about to begin my portable HTPC project.  I want a small, portable box that I can easily carry with me in one hand and that will have a big library of media on it already and can connect to any tv or monitor.  The OS will be Windows 7.  The main interface for the media player will be J. River.  For those wondering why J. River?  I need a software to streamline the navigation of all my media.  The regular Windows interface is built for mouse/keyboard use on a monitor right in front of you.  For an HTPC, you need something with bigger fonts and cleaner interfaces, and not mouse or keyboard oriented.  If you think about regular dvd players, you see how you navigate mostly with up/down/left/right and an centered Enter button.  I need the same for an HTPC, along with support for a mouse if necessary.  What I'm going to do for that is get a Wii remote and use it on the PC.  You can wave it around like an air mouse, and it also has a cursor pad and buttons.  Perfect.

I need the htpc form factor as small as possible, but with hardware that can handle full HD.  I'll likely build it myself, but if there's a good one already available, I'm willing to get that also.  Any suggestions are welcome.

Any of you ever wondered why HTPC's have never taken off?  It's not because it's too hard or too geeky.  It's simply because the companies don't want it to be successful.  If HTPC's were common and easy, it would make pirating even more appealing.  Same reason why even after 15 years, dvd players still won't play a disc with regular avi files on it.  It's easy to do, they just don't want to do it.  And we can find the weird boxes that do this, but it's a niche right now.  People don't even know about it right now because it's not marketed.  if people knew you could just watch anything on your tv from the computer, the dvd market would die, and we'd start seeing a lot of really nice HTPC's all over the place.  How could you not want that?  It's basically a box that will play anything you throw at it right on your TV.

3477

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by superboyac on September 12, 2010, 02:05 PM »

it just goes to show, people like us really need to get our hands on these things.  These reviews and forums are all great, but nothing is like touching the freaking thing.  Nothing.  I'm glad I did that.

-superboyac (September 11, 2010, 10:52 PM)

Yes, I agree.  But one thing that often perplexes me is whether to buy what I've tried out at the "real" store where I tried it or save some $$ by buying it elsewhere online.  I often have these crises of conscience.  Is this an issue for you, too, Superboyac?

-cyberdiva (September 12, 2010, 09:22 AM)

If the store has it for around the same price, I'll get it there.  But the online deals are usually much better.  So I go with that.  Yes, there is the return policy which is always more painful online vs. brick and mortar, but I just deal with it. 

And, yes, Darwin, I also don't really understand what someone is supposed to do with those all in one pc's with the touchscreen.  I don't quite get it.

3478

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by superboyac on September 11, 2010, 10:52 PM »

wraith:
I just went into my local fry's.  I tried out all the laptops and pc's.  I was not particularly drawn to any of the laptops, just because I know a laptop does everything I need to do in the normal way.  Now, they didn't have any tablets, but they did have some HP Touchsmart all-in-one pc's as well as a couple of sony touchscreen all in one's.  I was playing around with it with Windows 7's touchscreen features, and it's really pretty freaking awesome!!  I liked it.  It's very productive and useful and all that good stuff.  Even the native windows handwriting recognition feature when you need to enter characters (website addresses, searches, etc.) was really pretty good!  Even with my crappy chicken scratch handwriting!  Man, I think I could do some good with a tablet convertible.

So, now that I was able to try it hands-on, I think I may indeed get that HP tm2t.  I really want a better built, more professional tablet convertible like the higher end HP's, or the Panasonics, or Lenovo.  But at this point, it's not worth the extra $1000+.  So I think I'll get the cheap HP tablet and mess around with that for a while.  It's only about $900, which is good.  But everyone, the Windows 7 touch interface is pretty nice, just from my first impressions.  It does all the pinching zoom, tapping, and all that really well, I liked it a lot.

it just goes to show, people like us really need to get our hands on these things.  These reviews and forums are all great, but nothing is like touching the freaking thing.  Nothing.  I'm glad I did that.

3479

Living Room / Re: How do you add a post in a Google Groups thread???

« Last post by superboyac on September 11, 2010, 10:44 PM »

Interesting, thanks for the responses.

From what you guys have said here, it seems like something weird is happening.  Maybe it's just a moderation issue.  but it's weird because I'm allowed to create posts as much as I want and they appear instantly.  It's only the replies that I can't do.  I find that weird, no?

3480

Living Room / Re: Scantron alternatives: I need cheaper/creative solutions.

« Last post by superboyac on September 11, 2010, 10:43 PM »

Last 3 posters:
Thanks for the alternatives.  They look very promising and I'm currently researching them.  I appreciate it.

3481

Living Room / Re: Does Flash or java make websites suck?

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

Obvious question: Why is everything Adobe does so fat and heavy-handed?

-zridling (September 09, 2010, 11:58 AM)

No idea.  I always ask this myself.  I assume it has something to do with being cross platform.  Once again, I'm no programmer, so these are just my observations based on a lot of experience.  To me, java and flash is normally slow and cumbersome.  Adobe applications always feel java-ish and slower, less responsive than you would like it to be.  Programs like mylife organized are really really zippy and fast.  All of mouser's stuff is fast. 

3482

General Software Discussion / Re: Yet another application tapping into the "cloud" market.

« Last post by superboyac on September 08, 2010, 07:48 PM »

And I have resigned myself to seeing bloat in "enterprise" apps, as well as the herd mentality to follow Microsoft. But a shareware author (or a small business) should have very little reason to go there. What I was trying to get across is that Delphi, with its many imperfections, gave developers in mid-nineties what Microsoft is only giving them today, and Delphi was always blazingly fast, since it compiled into native Win32 code (no different really than C/C++). A developer using MS-only tools may have gained some useful tools and shortened the time to market by moving to .Net, but a Delphi developer didn't. Some neat libraries which Delphi never had, yes, but no real gain in development time or ease of coding, I think.

I have yet to see a single application that was rewritten in .Net and gained a cool/must-have feature that it didn't or couldn't have before.

And I should write one day about what I called "enterprise" apps above. My job niche, software localization, lends itself particularly well to, um, software-ization of the process, and there are monsters out there, monsters! In-house apps are the worst, because there is exactly zero thought given to usability or functionality. But even commercial, expensive "vertical" apps that translators are expected to use are written for the managers and accountants first. There's one big suite, which has had the market pretty much cornered for years, sells for several hundred to several thousand Euros, and it's primarily an environment for typing and proofreading text, right? And they never implemented a "Find Next" command... since 1992. But managers love it! It's all remote now with clouds and servers and enterprise-level BUGS, written in BOTH .Net and Java. Ain't technology grand?

-tranglos (September 08, 2010, 07:20 PM)

Man, tranglos, you really have touched upon a subject which I think about a lot.  I'm really glad to hear about this from the programmer's perspective, because as a user (and non-programmer) I can definitely see and feel the results of the things you say.  As you know, I'm a big software user, and I'm even relied upon it at work myself.  I have railed and ranted against the things we are currently using at work, and it's exactly what you say.  Expensive (really really expensive) software that does nothing more nor anything better than a very cheap (~$100) third-party shareware.  In fact, as you say, the interfaces are usually terrible and the end-user experience is pretty miserable.  And I'm not talking about a couple of examples here and there...this is the prevailing experience.

One of the reasons why i hang on to the Windows side of things is because there are so many third party tools, I can usually come close to finding something that does exactly what I want it to do.  But it's becoming worse and worse.  I have a deep admiration for the programmers out there that write elegant and eloquent software...guys like you, mouser, and some others.  It's really a great service to the public, more so than you guys get credit for.

Man, in house apps are the worst.  I absolutely hate it when my company tries to get people to use some shitty program that was created entirely in access.  What a nightmare.  It's frightening to think about how often this happens and in some relatively large corporations.  Access is fine for a personal database, but don't use it to make an application that 1000 people are going to use.  And then they make websites with just crazy things going on.  And they never ever pay attention to the details that make the software a living hell.  It's an ends justifies the means thing.  Yes, it does what it is supposed to do, but in the most painful way possible.  I feel like I'm the only one being annoyed by these things, and it makes me look crazy!  I used to keep track of all the annoyances and bugs i found in the in house apps and send it to the programmers, thinking it would help them.  But they didn't care, nobody defended me or gave it any importance.  In the end, it made me look like a raving lunatic because I was the only one making a big fuss about how ridiculous the login process was.

For example, we use Citrix in our company (~9000 people).  When i first started, I was having a double logon issue: I'd have to login twice whenever I wanted to use Citrix.  I put in a  trouble ticket to have our IT look at it.  After fiddling around with my computer for an hour, they gave up.  So I spent an entire day reading forums and trying a bunch of stuff out until I finally got it.  But now, i noticed that a bunch of other people are having the same problem.  They keep double logging in, and they don't think twice about it!  I even ask them sometimes if they are annoyed, and they say whatever.  So i give up.  I'm in no position to influence anything, so I just deal with it.  it's crazy though to think of the amount of time and money wasted because nobody cares to have eloquent technology.  But i guess it's not limited to technology, it's everything...

3483

General Software Discussion / Re: Yet another application tapping into the "cloud" market.

« Last post by superboyac on September 08, 2010, 02:38 PM »

Tranglos!  Thanks for that history lesson.  Even though i don't get all the details and terms, I find it fascinating.  To me, it sounds very similar to other trends we see in software: bloat and trying to bundle too much together.  Just because .net bundled a lot of things in one package doesn't necessarily make it better.  In fact, it probably makes it worse.  I like the idea of getting a main programming languages and using third-party addons to add additional features and components to it.  It's the same reason why I prefer Windows over Mac.  I can use tons of little third party utilities to make my computing experience awesome.  You don't have those options on a Mac, at least not nearly as much.

I prefer programmers to use languages that result in a speedy program.  If I had a little more time, I'd research the programming languages of my fastest programs to see which languages tended to be used for those.  Is there a way to see the programming language without having to ask the authors themselves?  Is there some way to just analyze the files to see what they are written in?  It sounds like Delphi and C++ are usually pretty zippy.

3484

DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.27.01 - Sep 7, 2010

« Last post by superboyac on September 08, 2010, 02:28 PM »

strangely enough, you can't really ask dcupdater to generically run automatic update checks.
only FARR has an auto update check that invokes it, and you can access that from the FARR options tab "Plugins and Updates".

-mouser (September 08, 2010, 02:14 PM)

Ah!  i think that was the thing causing my crashes.  I had to go in and disable that setting in FARR.

3485

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by superboyac on September 08, 2010, 08:29 AM »

Did wraith get an ipad?!  Holy smokes.  Good stuff.

3486

Living Room / Re: Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

« Last post by superboyac on September 08, 2010, 08:28 AM »

superboyac, I came back to this thread to tell you to get an iPad.

I originally told you that if it was me I'd get an Android tablet. But I've since thought about it and realized it isn't me. That is, you didn't ask me what I would get. You asked what you should get. And it seems to me you want an iPad so you should get what you want.

-Deozaan (September 08, 2010, 02:23 AM)

Thanks!  But I still don't think I want it anymore.  The main thing I like about the ipad is that the touchscreen responsiveness is so good.  But I really want a Windows7 machine.  I know it, I won't be happy otherwise.  I'll just wait.  If an emergency comes up, I'll buy another laptop.

3487

General Software Discussion / Re: Help! Good flowcharting sw needed

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 11:56 PM »

I've been a long time fan of Edge Diagrammer since it's early days.  It's no where near as bloated and complicated (or powerful if you want to think of it that way) as the big guys, but it is for me much easier and funner to use, and so perfect for when i just want to do some quick sketching of an idea.

-mouser (May 09, 2008, 01:22 AM)

Mouser, I just have to give a big thanks for recommending Edge.  Whew, what a breath of fresh air among the flowchart programs out there!  Over the years, 99% of the time I have found that all of the other softwares I tried were way too complicated.  Like Visio, they are a pain to use.  This Edge Diagrammer is so refrshingly simple.  Oh man, what a relief.  Even little things, like the way objects line up automatically are way easier in Edge than in Viso.  In Viso, things NEVER line up the way you want it to when you use the automatic alignment while dragging.  Things are always wanting to line up where you don't want it to.  Stupid stuff like that makes a program painful to use.  I'm sure there's a way to get it to work the way I want, but it should be default.

Speaking of default, changing the default connector styles in Visio is also way to complicated.  Whatever.  Edge is the way to go.  Unless you need super powerful features, I wouldn't even look elsewhere.  If all you are concerned with is drawing shapes, connecting them with arrows/lines, some text...look no further.

3488

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 11:32 PM »

Target, I also used to just open my file manager.  but after configuring LBC, I'll never go back.  I'd give LBC a shot before trying to AHK it on my own.

3489

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 10:12 PM »

I am with Superboy on this one!  An excellent idea to make a list of must haves.  Off the top of my head I would vote for any or all of Nirsoft's programs.  Also System Explorer and CCleaner are must haves for me.

I would use portable apps more but having to constantly update them can be a real pain in the butt.      Of course, I guess updating them isn't mandatory.   

-techidave (September 07, 2010, 09:55 PM)

Hmm...how about a portable app updating utility?  How would one go about doing that?

3490

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 09:46 PM »

what i'd really like to do is come up with something so that LBC and FARR can parse the portable-app-collection formats, so that you can use LBC and FARR as a drop-in replacement for those portable app menu launchers without doing any special configuration.

that may mean including a set of pre-defined launchbars with different category icons and looks that users can choose, that could be provided by people on the dc forum.

-mouser (September 07, 2010, 07:32 PM)

That's a great idea.  I'd help out in any way possible.

What I was suggesting was collecting details of everyones must haves/favourites which could then be distilled down to a core set of apps, or that would at the very least provide a pick list of proven tools...

-Target (September 07, 2010, 07:47 PM)

Also a terrific idea.  I say we start collecting everyone's opinions and work on putting together a master list.  We can make it a NANY for non-programmers.

3491

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

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

Target, I hear you.  But there are dozens of lists all over the place.  It's a lot of work and time to set up a USB stick.  If I did it the way described above, it would all be done using freeware apps and best of all, it uses the LBC as a launcher, and not some very specific portable launcher.  For example, the launcher that comes with portableapps is nowhere near as nice as LBC.  I don't know, it was just an idea.  I may do it just for the fun of it.  Maybe I won't....haha.

3492

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 05:49 PM »

I wonder if people here would find it useful if I made a rar or iso file that contained my entire LBC setup in one download?  I think that would be nice and useful.  Of course, I'd have to remove the non-freeware stuff.  Would that even be legal?  Probably not.  Even for freeware, I doubt I'm allowed to distribute their stuff that way.  Still, I can't help feeling it's something people would find useful.

3493

General Software Discussion / Re: Portable apps suites - is there a good one?

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 05:43 PM »

I actually use mouser's Launchbar Commander as my perfect portable USB launcher, and it's great.  On my flash drive root directory, I have a link to LBC's exe that uses a relative path so it will launch under any drive letter (wasn't easy to do).  Then it's launched, and I have all my portable apps organized into nice categories.  I access using the icon in the tray or by using a hotkey which will pop up the menu under my mouse.  It's a really great solution.

As for programs, I use mostly small utilities that are already available as portable installs (like XYPlorer).  I use some programs from PortableApps also.  I don't use any pre-made portable suites, and I don't use any specific portable launchers.  For launching, LBC is the best, so why would I try to use anything else just because it's a portable thing now?  Thanks to mouser for building that into LBC.

Screenshots of my setup are below:
The tray icons

Note: I use USB Safely Remove on computers I use a lot to automatically run LBC as soon as the USB is inserted.

The menu


I hope that is useful.

3494

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 03:30 PM »

Well, at least I'm happy with Cox cable. BTW  I had FIOS when I lived in NY and it was VG, ( upgraded from DSL ) but I don't remember it as being any better than the cable I have now.

-ljbirns (September 07, 2010, 03:21 PM)

Yeah, cox is great.  I think the only significant difference you would see is the upload speed.  FIOS should have more than Cox.

3495

DcUpdater / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - DcUpdater - 1.27.01 - Sep 7, 2010

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 03:09 PM »

I haven't seen anything lately.  but, honestly, I'm not sure if I turned off all the auto-update settings or not.  Sorry if I'm not much help.

3496

Living Room / Re: What's Your Internet Speed/Reliability SATISFACTION?

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 11:53 AM »

You know what I would pay $100 or more a month for?  Internet access at FIOS speeds, and also a little portable hotspot device (like Sprint has now) which I can take with me wherever I go to get 3g/4G speeds for a laptop/phone.  If those two services could be bundled just like that (nothing else), I'd pay $100+ for it.

3497

General Software Discussion / Re: Yet another application tapping into the "cloud" market.

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 11:51 AM »

Why is this?  What is going on?  If those other programs are slower, why do people keep using it?  I've asked this question before, and the response I've gotten is something like, "Well, it depends on the programmer.  Java and .net can be just as fast as C++ if it's done right."  Now I'm willing to believe that, but why do I usually see otherwise?

-superboyac (September 07, 2010, 08:54 AM)

Speed of development and $$$ - Sure Pure Win32 (which I work in) is fast at runtime, but the development time is much longer. With .NET (MFC and the other RAD/OOP tricks) very little time is spent coding the UI because everything is basically drop-in. With C++, you gotta manually code every single line of the UI code yourself. If the objective it to rush something to market ($$$) Pure Win32/API C++ is a no-no.

I'm not really sure on the Java front. Only reason (that I know of) to use it for an app is to make something cross platform quickly. I'd guess being that Java runs virtualized it's doomed to lag a bit behind native code for execution speed.

-Stoic Joker (September 07, 2010, 10:10 AM)

Ah, I see.  Thanks for that explanation.  That makes sense.  I want to say it's laziness, but I also understand the dilemma from the developer's perspective.  As a software user, I prefer developer's to use the code that will make it snappy, even if it means a little more time spent developing it.  And I'll pay for it, but we need more than me encouraging this.

3498

General Software Discussion / Re: Yet another application tapping into the "cloud" market.

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 09:01 AM »

Beyond one mere app, look for more companies to bundle services to guarantee themselves more money. For example, at home, you've seen your cable or phone company expand to phone/data/tv services, hoping you'll take the easy way and just buy "the package" from one source each month. And once they make that experience difficult enough, it's inconvenient enough to not want to repeat the experience anytime soon.

On the software side, Microsoft has long done this between OS and office suite; Apple with its OS and gadgets; and Google with its "services," notably Gmail. If you're using one, why not all, instead of using a better online (office) app from Microsoft?
__________________
PS: Ever notice that with tiered cable TV packages, all the original-content channels are hoisted onto the most expensive tier? Reminds me of Al Pacino's speech in The Devil's Advocate: "While you're hopping from one foot to the other, they're laughing their asses off!"

-zridling (September 03, 2010, 06:33 PM)

Yeah.  All this bundling is annoying.  Since I'm super picky about all my software, this bundling drives me nuts.  I mean, I have about 5 different softwares just to play back videos.  Why?  Hey, I have my reasons.  Each one has a particular strength.  So if I'm that picky about merely playing back videos, what makes companies think I want them bundling all video related functions in one big software?

The answer is...sadly...I'm the weird one.  99.9% of people don't care as much about every little thing in their software.  However, even though I'm in the minority, I still contend that if software (in general) is designed to please people like me, it actually makes the software better for the majority as well.  It's not like it will only appeal to the weirdos.

3499

General Software Discussion / Re: Yet another application tapping into the "cloud" market.

« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2010, 08:54 AM »

I know exactly what you mean.  My nickname at my previous job was "funkiller".

-superboyac (September 01, 2010, 11:02 AM)

Wish there were any fun to it though I love technology (well, mostly) and it is indeed fascinating to see all the new inventions and occasionally great UIs and all... except that I have no use for all the clouds and all the sharing craze, and I seriously wonder how many do. At the same time, in the rush to put everything online, I'm seeing a horrible neglect of usability. Any app moved to a browser immediately incurs a huge loss in usability and reliability: no or little keyboard access, slow response, non-standard, poorly implemented UI widgets with less functionality, can lose data if the server hiccups on clicking Submit... and that's just for starters, before you consider availability, privacy and cost.

It's not at all about hating technology. As always, it's about hating sucky technology.

-tranglos (September 07, 2010, 07:19 AM)

Egg-zactly!  Compared to locally installed software interfaces, the web interfaces suck.  How can a web app compete with a local software?  It can't.  A local software takes advantage of all the hardware that is directly connected to it.  A web interface has to rely on just the data feed coming in...how can it compete?  We already know how slow it is for things like flash pages or videos to load...now we want to run real software on the web?  No thanks.  Take keynote, for example...if I run that on my pc right now, it will be blazing fast.  Each click, every type registers nearly instantly.  The same application in a web browser would be soooooo much slower.  The sluggishness would be obvious.  heck, a lot of companies have a hard enough time making their apps run speedy even when they're locally installed.

Just recently they've released a new version of the desktop app, with some nice additions, but rewritten from scratch in .Net (used to be plain Win32 Delphi) - now it takes 15 seconds to start and flickers like heck...

You know, I've often wondered about this.  I'm not a programmer nor do I know much about it.  But I've noticed that when programs are written in java or .net, they seem slow and sluggish to me.  You can tell by the responsiveness of clicking and the pauses in between actions...like how long it takes to open up a preferences dialog.  We're talking fractions of a second, but you can tell.  When I see things written in C++ or  other such languages, they are always faster.  It seems like the programs have to "think" less about things.

Why is this?  What is going on?  If those other programs are slower, why do people keep using it?  I've asked this question before, and the response I've gotten is something like, "Well, it depends on the programmer.  Java and .net can be just as fast as C++ if it's done right."  Now I'm willing to believe that, but why do I usually see otherwise?

3500

Living Room / Does Flash or java make websites suck?

« Last post by superboyac on September 06, 2010, 11:43 PM »

There's something about fancy websites with cool rollover effects and other animations that makes the website less easy to deal with.  For example, ESPN recently changed their website layout (again) and they went a little more serious with the flash.  Note, I'm assuming it's flash, it might be something else doing the animations...that's not really the point.  Anyway, now when you roll the mouse over some of the headings, a big ol sub-menu pops up underneath.  I don't mean a little drop down or anything...it's like a quarter of the page and has menus and pictures inside the freaking thing.  But it slows down the whole navigation by quite a bit.  First, you have to wait while the thinking wheel processes for a couple of seconds until the menu appears.  I just think it's a little out of control.  How does this help?  First, all these menus make it more confusing to navigate.  Secondly, it takes the user many more steps to find the desired link.  How is this an improvement?

But, strictly website design speaking, do these flash websites ruin the experience in your opinion?  it does to me.  Musicians' websites (and other artists) are the most guilty of this.  They use flash to create unique shapes and animations, but clicking around and finding things really sucks.