Recent Posts

351

Official Announcements / Re: Programming Contest from DonationCoder.com and Veign.com - Deadline July 1st

« Last post by Veign on June 14, 2008, 10:35 AM »

A little of everything.   

352

Site/Forum Features / Re: Nofollow tags added to all external links

« Last post by Veign on June 09, 2008, 07:16 PM »

<quote attr=nofollow>

-f0dder (June 09, 2008, 06:31 PM)

Would have no affect.  Nofollow is for Anchor tags.

353

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SnapSuite program family/Free online computer help

« Last post by Veign on June 09, 2008, 09:23 AM »

Determine if an Office App is installed:
http://www.freevbcod...ShowCode.asp?ID=4423

Determine If An Application Is Installed:
http://www.devcity.n...ty20040426.htm#ni030

Should get you started.

354

Site/Forum Features / Re: Nofollow tags added to all external links

« Last post by Veign on June 08, 2008, 11:07 AM »

Its not as easy as just doing a search to see what or who is authoritative.  Also every keyword and every search doesn't mean there is an authoritative site.

Yes.  Authors may be giving discounts and giveaways knowing they are getting a good solid backlink.  People sometime pay good money for a good backlink.  Thats how important a backlink can be.

355

Site/Forum Features / Re: Nofollow tags added to all external links

« Last post by Veign on June 08, 2008, 10:00 AM »

i think that linking to "good" sites also probably helps DC, right?

-jgpaiva (June 08, 2008, 07:32 AM)

Sorta.  It could help if a specific topic was being discussed and there were external links to authoritative sites on the topic.  Authoritative sites are classified as the best of the best on a topic - Like MS being an authoritative site on Windows.

356

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SnapSuite program family/Free online computer help

« Last post by Veign on June 08, 2008, 09:51 AM »

You should be able to do this relatively easy in VB.NET.  I used to do this in Classic VB all the time - detect the installations of various applications.  Depending on the Application you are either looking for specific registry keys or attempting to instantiate an API object for the application and detecting if it gets created or fails (like for Office Apps).

357

Site/Forum Features / Re: Nofollow tags added to all external links

« Last post by Veign on June 07, 2008, 11:12 AM »

NoFollow is does the following things:
- Prevent PR from leaking on a page to other sites.  Everything link on a page will leak its PR juice across all links on that page.  The more links on a page the less juice that goes to each.  By placing nofollow on every link within a page it means more of DC's internal links on a page will get PR juice.
- Preventing penalties by linking to a 'bad neighborhood'.  Bad Neighborhoods are sites that Google has severely penalized in some way for some reason (most likely black hat seo).  If you link to a 'bad neighborhood' you can be given a penalty too since Google feels you have control over the links on your sites and by linking (basically casting a vote for) to a bad neighborhood you are in some way saying they are good.
- Backlinks, backlinks, backlinks.   Removes that all important backlink from a good, trusted site (like DC).  Backlinks from trusted sites are like gold in Google.  SEO is two parts: on-page and off-page.  Without a combination of both you won't rank well in Google for competitive keywords.  This is what the spammers want.  They want that backlink from DC, they want that vote.

Understand that by placing NoFollow on all links you could hurt a good member's search result for a keyword or lower their PR.  DC could be the deciding factor on where they place for a keyword.

I would also see if there can be a post limit imposed.  When a person reaches 100 posts the nofollow tag is lifted as they are a solid contributor to DC and should get some benefits from their posts.

358

Official Announcements / Re: Programming Contest from DonationCoder.com and Veign.com - Deadline July 1st

« Last post by Veign on June 07, 2008, 11:00 AM »

Is anyone thinking of submitting something?  Just curious what the turnout will be...

359

Official Announcements / Re: Programming Contest from DonationCoder.com and Veign.com - Deadline July 1st

« Last post by Veign on June 06, 2008, 05:54 PM »

Just a note in response to an inquiry I got.

I don't think the use of visual express tools is going to be a really strict thing.  We have no arrangement to promote MS products and this is mainly an attempt to help insure that whoever gets this will really use it.  And also if someone submits a program that needs the full version to compile and borrowed someone else's copy of visual studio to make it, that would be fine too.  Again the point isn't to force people to use the express version, it's just to help us make sure that the person who enters is going to have use for these tools.

-mouser (June 06, 2008, 04:23 PM)

Agreed and well put.  We only mentioned the free tools as an option for developers to use to enter the contest - a lot of people don't know there are options for developers to develop without spending money on an IDE.

Should also mention that you will not be able to resell the prize.  It will be registered in the winners name shortly after announcing the winner.

360

Official Announcements / Re: Programming Contest from DonationCoder.com and Veign.com - Deadline July 1st

« Last post by Veign on June 06, 2008, 08:43 AM »

I am looking forward to what members can come up with.  If you're not a member then this is a great time to become one as this contest is open to anyone willing to enter.

The MSDN subscription is an amazing collection of almost every application from Microsoft and is a great tool to have in your arsenal of development tools.

If anyone has any questions about the prize then please feel free to contact me with your questions.

361

Living Room / Re: The 10 most annoying programs on the Internet

« Last post by Veign on June 02, 2008, 04:59 PM »

#3 - I couldn't imagine the state of the mom and pop computers I come across if it wasn't for Windows Update.
#9 - I use Outlook and like having my email, tasks, appointments and contacts in a single application.
#10 - To mention Flash is not fair as Flash is an excellent platform for creating some ingenious things.

Agreed on all others especially #1 and #4...

362

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: SnapSuite program family/Free online computer help

« Last post by Veign on May 29, 2008, 10:15 AM »

Except for dialup users you have to load all the page data not just the data they want to view.  I agree with Mouser, simple and clean.  Give users what they expect in a website and they gain confidence in your product.  Stray too far from the norm and your users will require a level of trust before trying your application.

Sample website I put together for an application of mine (http://www.cfontpro.com/).  Simple, clean design.  The code isn't the best as it was one of the first websites that I designed and developed myself.

An option for you is to pick up a free template somewhere and use it as a starting point.  If you need suggestions on places to get some good, well designed, free templates just let me know.

363

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: brand new version of Distance Check

« Last post by Veign on May 24, 2008, 01:02 PM »

I will look at it allowing or handling only bookmarking a single start or end as of right now it requires both to be completed.

364

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: brand new version of Distance Check

« Last post by Veign on May 24, 2008, 12:57 PM »

You mean have the home page allow for bookmarking a starting or ending postal code?  If so, that can be done.

The results page is bookmarkable so people can send pre-completed URLs like:
http://www.distancec...=29045&end=61821

But you want it so that this can be done:
http://www.distancec...ndex.php?start=29045
(and have it prefill)

365

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: brand new version of Distance Check

« Last post by Veign on May 24, 2008, 12:49 PM »

Thanx.

Whats in the works (when I can find time):
- Add jQuery to 'rollup' some of the displays
- Add driving directions in a compact kinda way - trying not to increase the display area anymore and doing more with a smart display
- Add more countries
- Add the ability to get distances between countries that are connected by land
- some beta stuff which has to be seen before I mention it (very cool, fun mapping stuff)

366

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: brand new version of Distance Check

« Last post by Veign on May 24, 2008, 12:36 PM »

Anyone have any comments?  Good or bad doesn't bother me as long as its constructive.  I really want to make this a very useful tool and would love to hear what you have to say.  What can make it better?

367

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / brand new version of Distance Check

« Last post by Veign on May 22, 2008, 04:45 PM »

Distance Check locates the distance and information about two Zip Codes. The distance is calculated and general information about each zip code, a map for each zip code and approximate driving time is displayed.

Whats new:

• Support for multiple countries - more coming
• Results displays driving route
• Webpage has been redesigned

Link:
http://www.distancecheck.com

Comments / Suggestions?

368

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Post your FARR v2 Plugin Idea Requests Here - Plugin Writers Read In

« Last post by Veign on May 22, 2008, 01:38 PM »

How about a PHP function locator which lets me start typing 'php [function name]' and a list of matching function is provided and when selected takes me to the PHP.net website for that function (default browser).  If this is easy I could provide a function list to assist.

The format for locating a function at php.net is:
http://www.php.net/[function name]

so, to find information on strlen would be:
http://www.php.net/strlen

Plugin could be expanded to other languages as it would be a simple data file for the langauge syntax and a URL format to locate the information.  One data file could hold multiple languages in an array

369

Living Room / Re: Top websites for saving money with coupon codes

« Last post by Veign on May 19, 2008, 06:36 PM »

Thanks, Chris.  It never occurs to me to look... I'll try to remember 

-cranioscopical (May 19, 2008, 05:22 PM)

I have probably saved 1000's using coupon codes for my purchases over the past years.

370

Living Room / Top websites for saving money with coupon codes

« Last post by Veign on May 19, 2008, 11:31 AM »

Thought the members here would get use out of a recent blog post on some great websites that help you save money.  These are the places I visit prior to any purchase.  You can save a lot with a simple search at the right place.

from Unhandled Perception blog

371

BrowserTraySwitch / Re: Firefox 3 + IE6

« Last post by Veign on May 16, 2008, 04:23 PM »

it's insane how many different ways there are to mess with the default browser. it's ridiculous.
ok what i need you to do for me is install a registry snapshot-compare tool, and compare your registry when IE is default vs when FF3 is default -- that will tell me which registry entries are changed and i can add support in browsertrayswitch to make those changes.

-mouser (May 16, 2008, 03:43 PM)

Here's a tool:
http://www.veign.com...efore-and-after.html

372

Living Room / Re: Options to use Donation Credits to purchase stuff

« Last post by Veign on May 16, 2008, 12:05 PM »

Note that the first and main decision i make when evaluating any new idea is: "how much time is this going to take away from me coding?" so with any new plan we have to consider that, or consider whether any new work can be done by a volunteer.

-mouser (May 16, 2008, 11:00 AM)

True.  You need another DC specific coder - can handle DC upgrades.

373

Living Room / Re: PIN-code

« Last post by Veign on May 16, 2008, 12:00 PM »

I only posted my response since I didn't want to be the only one who sat through the entire video and was still lost 

374

Living Room / Re: Options to use Donation Credits to purchase stuff

« Last post by Veign on May 16, 2008, 10:51 AM »

What would you like added?

My only thought was to see if a DC store was a good option but would be willing to widen the scope of the poll.

375

Living Room / Re: Silly: Best web error message?

« Last post by Veign on May 16, 2008, 10:47 AM »

I would be interested to see a codified 404 page.