Recent Posts

35576

Living Room / calling all creative game inventing type people.. READ IN

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 12:49 PM »

has anyone seen the recent craze for sudoku?  http://www.sudoku.com/

its just a simple little game.

i'd like us to hold a little contest here for people to try to come up with similarly super simple game,
which will be programmed by one (or more) of the coders who visit donationcoder.com.

so what i'd like to suggest is that the next coding snacks weekend be devoted to new invented little games.
the challenge for you non-programmers is to try to invent a game.
it has to be really simple, with minimal graphics and user interface elements, so that it can be coded in a day or so.

you guys/gals up for it?

maybe we can have some prizes, but the main prize would be your part in inventing a fun new freeware game
(plus you can name it )

35577

ProcessTamer / Re: Seems like a memory leak.

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 04:51 AM »

interesting idea, though it shouldn't be the case that trying to show a balloon when they are disabled in windows should cause an error like that, such a thing might explain why so few people experience this (since most dont have balloons turned off).

if joewski sees this, maybe he could tell us if he also has balloon's turned off in his windows installation.

do you think there might have been an application using a lot of your cpu at the time of the error, which process tamer was trying to tame at the time?

if you would be willing to do some tests, with balloon messages turned on and off in process tamer while using an app that uses too much of the cpu (try the included cpueater test utility), i'd really appreciate any clues you might find to reproducing the error.

35578

ProcessTamer / Re: Seems like a memory leak.

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 04:34 AM »

well happening once is much too much.
did it happen right when it started? or was it after a delay of several minutes?

35579

ProcessTamer / Re: Seems like a memory leak.

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 04:22 AM »

do either of you have any clue what might be causing this?
any hint about what triggers it?

bob - it ran for a while and then showed this? did you do anything right before it happened?

it's really strange because i and *many* people run this tool 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, for months and never seen this.

is it possible that it's trying to tame some specific process that triggers the problem?
can you reproduce the crash reliably?

35580

ProcessTamer / Re: feature request: kill process if...

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 04:18 AM »

log file trimming options are a good idea;
let me think about a more generic way of letting user decide what info should go into tooltip or balloon or tray icon and see if we can figure out a nice general purpose solution.

35581

UrlSnooper / Re: MENU Index out of range

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 02:56 AM »

great - your clue might be what i need to figure out why url snooper was giving that error, i'll see if i can reproduce it by fooling around with those options.

35582

Finished Programs / Re: DONE 07/18/05 - IDEA: Dim rest of desktop/windows, except for focused window

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 02:52 AM »

don't forget to make a donation to your favorite skrommel! just click the dollar sign next to his name or follow the paypal link on skrommel's page.

35583

General Review Discussion / Re: Vote for what Review to do Next

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 02:51 AM »

heheh - i love your avatar veign

so far we have not asked for any review licenses; there were only a handful of cases where the shareware versions were limited in functionality and where we did not already own a copy of the software.  our general approach has been to view such limitations in the shareware versions of programs (as opposed to the standard time limits) as a bad thing that deserved criticisim.

we did ask acdsee for a review copy of acdsee8 prior to our review, but they were too disorganized to provide one to use in time, and they didn't want us saying anything about it anyway, for reasons that might drive a competent pr person insane.

however, it seems likely that we are going to run into cases in the future where getting review copies that remove functionality limits would be essential to doing a certain review, and your advice is very welcome - now that we have some serious reviews under our belts i gather that such things may be easier to get (and easier to insist on if they want to be included in the review), and we do try to make sure we thank and acknowledge any such gifts from companies.

as i've remarked before, my impression is that you can really divide companies into 2 categories.

there are those that don't respond to emails in a timely fashion, if at all, don't care to talk about their software, don't care about our site or reviews really, aren't interested in discounts, donating copies, etc. and just have some flunkies handling customer service.

and then there are the companies which have real people you can interact with.  they care about their program, they want to make it better, they care about your opinion, the review, etc.  they are interested in our web site, they like to talk, they are amenable to offering discounts for our members or doing something in the way of working with our members, etc.

it's hard not to really want to support those in the second category, even when their program isn't (yet) as good as the best program from a company in the first category.

35584

Living Room / Re: scrubbing downloaded utilities

« Last post by mouser on September 17, 2005, 02:36 AM »

there is no doubt that the safest way to *test* software is to install it in a virtual machine tool like vmware or virtualpc.

second safest might be to test new software on a secondary machine which you have a good drive image for and don't mind restoring to its previous state every once and a while.

those two methods really let you install stuff without worrying, since your plan is always to go back to a safe state, and anything short of that dictates that you be a little careful of what you install.

being pro-active and checking out the reputation of a program before installing it (which was much of carol's procedure) is probably the best approach.  you might also add to that the guideline of not installing something until it's been out for a while, to give other people a chance to test and report any issues.

another thing i do is i do a full drive image of my machine every month, like say on the 1st of each month.
so i save any testing of apps that i might be worried about (or major upgrades) until right after that drive image.
that way if something goes wrong, i know i can restore back easily to the recent backup.

35585

General Software Discussion / Re: Perfect Menu - customise any right click menu in any app ...

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 01:52 PM »

that's really quite interesting.. i'm adding it to the help file for ContextMenu Commander, the new donationcoder.com app that will be out soon which will allow you to customize context menus.

ContextMenu Commander is still in development and probably wont be out before 4 weeks or so (i'm working with another person who is doing most of the work so far); so whether you want to wait or not is hard to advise

but please people keep posting links to these kinds of apps so we can learn from them and include them in the list of related apps. i hope that ContextMenu Commander will be something special.

35586

Find And Run Robot / Re: Individual configurations for different users (WinXP Pro)

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 12:24 PM »

version 1.07.10 is now up, it supports the following variables which can be used in directory search paths:
%USERPROFILE%, %USERNAME%, %ALLUSERSPROFILE%, %MYDOCUMENTS%, %MYFAVORITES%

to be used exactly as you say (note they are case sensitive!).

i will replace the default search paths with these in v2.

35587

Find And Run Robot / version 1.07.10 is now up

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 12:22 PM »

Version 1.07.10 - Sep 16, 2005
[feature] Added environment variables in dir paths for search %USERPROFILE%, %USERNAME%, %ALLUSERSPROFILE%, %MYDOCUMENTS%, %MYFAVORITES%
[bugfix] regex field replacement failed if two fields were directl adjacent, e.g. $$1$$2

a suggested group alias:

Group Alias Name: www
Regular Expression: \A(http:\/\/|ftp:\/\/|www\.)(.+)

Results:
Surf to $$1$$2 | $$1$$2


-------------------
this will let you just type in:
www.amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
etc.
and then surf to it.

note: you can set a custom browser in F&R now, and if so, it will be used instead of defeault browser.

note2: you could alternatively add a simply alias like:
Group Alias Name: www
Regular Expression: surf (.*)
Results:
Surf to $$1 | $$1

so that you would type:
surf www.amazon.com
surf http://www.amazon.com
etc.

35588

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Global Push-To-Talk Hotkey

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 12:17 PM »

ah well, in that case may i suggest to skrommel that micmute should do both.

35589

General Software Discussion / Re: TrID file identifier

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 09:58 AM »

wanted to point out that mark0 has a fantastic site of freeware + donationware stuff that he has coded in addition to TriId (http://mark0.net/)
Really nice unusual stuff.

and do not miss the fact that mark0's TriID can be run using an online version if you like - so you just go to the web page, upload the file, and it will try to identify what the file is - extremely cool!

love your stuff mark0, please keep us updated on any new developments!

35590

Official Announcements / WinRar discount (20%) and some free copies to give away

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 08:52 AM »

Although winrar were not prepared to meet our normal 50% discount request, thanks to zaine's great review they have agreed to combine a 20% discount for all members with 10 free copies of the program for us to give out.

The winrar discount code will be made available in the members only section in a couple of days.  Zaine will decide how the free copies get given out - probably we will do what we have done in the past - set aside a few to recognize members who have contributed to the site and future reviewers, and give the rest out in a random drawing.

35591

UrlSnooper / Re: Any clues ...

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 08:34 AM »

i couldn't get those videos to play at all, so i didn't really have the opportunity to try to find the urls.
the best place to get help on downloading specific urls is still the streaming media recording forum:
http://p084.ezboard....m/fstreemeboxvcrfrm4

just a reminder to veblin: if you ever want to merge those forums into these just say so.

35592

Screenshot Captor / Re: v2.00.09 suggestions

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 08:27 AM »

auto-clear preview : i will add this, you are 2nd person to request.
preference window: let me look into it and see what i see
escape closed preferences: i think i can do this.

35593

UrlSnooper / Re: MENU Index out of range

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 07:48 AM »

can you check something for me?


check the Websites menu in url snooper, and on the Options tab, check the list of entries in the bottom table (the one with columns "Menu Text" and "System Command".

here are what mine look like to give you an idea:

35594

UrlSnooper / Re: not sniffing anything

« Last post by mouser on September 16, 2005, 07:37 AM »

hi digger,
looks like i need to fix some version info inconsistencies.

your guess about the problem is the most likely explanation - that is that it is a winpcap incompatibility with your modem hardware.
what kind of modem do you have?  if you are not seeing the countiner of packets then for sure its detecting any packets.

try searching winpcap support page: http://www.winpcap.org/contact.htm

HOWEVER:
my understanding is that ethereal uses winpcap,
so if ethereal works then i think there is no reason that url snooper shouldn't!
can you compare the network card selection list in both programs, see if they are the same or similar, make sure you have the proper card selected.
reboot your computer to make sure it has a chance to register the new winpcap drivers.

please do give us a follow up after trying these things - like i said if ethereal uses winpcap and works then there is absolutely no reason why url snooper shouldn't work.

35595

Find And Run Robot / Re: Individual configurations for different users (WinXP Pro)

« Last post by mouser on September 15, 2005, 06:42 PM »

oh thats a great idea - i remember it was brought up before but i guess i didn't implement it.
i will add it to top of todo list and i should be able to get it done in next week or two.

35596

Best Archive Tool / Re: Review comments from the ALTools Evangelist :)

« Last post by mouser on September 15, 2005, 07:46 AM »

Usually I just tell my firewall to block communication - if the the app were to cease to function then it would be uninstalled.

same here.

35597

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Global Push-To-Talk Hotkey

« Last post by mouser on September 15, 2005, 07:45 AM »

is this not what MicMute does? what exactly is it missing?

35598

Image Manager Shootout / Re: AcdSee like program

« Last post by mouser on September 15, 2005, 07:42 AM »

most of the good explorer replacements (directory opus, powerdesk, etc.) can display files in a zip archive as if it was a directory, and if you have thumbnail mode you can see all the thumbnails at a glance etc.

35599

Best Archive Tool / Re: Review comments from the ALTools Evangelist :)

« Last post by mouser on September 15, 2005, 03:13 AM »

i agree that any app that downloads ads is going to really cause concern from users (and i include myself) who don't like the idea of programs connecting out to the internet.

jibz and i have also talked about his idea of putting some "unregistered" text in the titlebar or taskbar - it does seem an intriguing possibility in terms of not being too distracting but being enough of a motivator to get people to purchase who really love the software.

35600

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Global Push-To-Talk Hotkey

« Last post by mouser on September 15, 2005, 02:40 AM »

don't forget to donate to your favorite skrommel if you like his work!