Recent Posts

37101

The Form Letter Machine / Re: TEASER: New Program Coming..

« Last post by mouser on May 23, 2005, 10:38 AM »

absolutely not - i am not into spam

37102

Living Room / Re: Cool short videos for the weekend

« Last post by mouser on May 23, 2005, 08:52 AM »

quite cool,
but i have to say these these 3d desktop things look MIND-BOGGLINGLY HORRIBLE to actually use.

writing notes on the back of a window - HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH - that has to be the stupidist user interface concept ever to actually get implemented.  if that's a good idea, i have a better one for them, how about you push a button and a little animated dog comes on the screen, then you zoom in and use your handwriting tablet to write a note on a biscuit, and feed the biscuit to the dog who eats it.  then, when you're using an app and want to see any notes you made about the app, you blow a whistle into the microphone, and the dog will come running (in 3d of course), then you have to feed him some special medecine, which will make him go to the bathroom.  he will do his business on each window, with the proper note being defecated on each window.  better yet, make him do his business on the back of each window, which you can tehn rotate in 3d to see it.

37103

The Form Letter Machine / TEASER: New Program Coming..

« Last post by mouser on May 23, 2005, 06:22 AM »

"The Form Letter Machine"

anyone want to try to guess what it does?

37104

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Dim rest of desktop/windows, except for focused window

« Last post by mouser on May 23, 2005, 02:23 AM »

try again, it's working for me..
maybe its a javascript issue or browser issue?

37105

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: modify system path (System Path Commander)

« Last post by mouser on May 23, 2005, 01:46 AM »

ill pass this along to chr, i'm sure he will change it (or add option to change it).
personally i love the blue background..

it seems this touched a raw nerve with you - just don't get mad at chr, im sure he didnt realize that there would be issues for visually impaired..

so here's a question for you, in spc, it uses 2 alternative colorings to indicate that an entry is either invalid (red) or changed (gree),
are those also unreadable, and if so, what would you recommend from a visually imparied standpoint, regarding colors..

37106

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Automatic Copy when highlighted

« Last post by mouser on May 23, 2005, 12:17 AM »

btw, forgot to add: nice teamwork looper+scott in finding this app.
i love how the coding snacks section is helping to locate some exotic programs.

it's also invaluable in saving us from recoding something that already exists in a better form.. so you guys who are helping to find and identify existing programs that do what a requester has asked for are making a real contribution here.  much appreciated.

37107

Screenshot Captor / v1.01.07 - bugfix release

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 11:43 PM »

wr975 found a bug where screenshot captor was failing to save files, due to the fact that non-english dates used in the filename template used '.' periods which confused the program regarding file extensions.

this is fixed in 1.01.07; by the way you can always check version history of programs from the online help on the program's page:
https://www.donation...hotcaptor/index.html

ps.
wr975 sent me the bug report by making a wink (http://www.debugmode.com/wink/) video of the problem - VERY COOOL, and highly recommended for sending an author a hard-to-explain bug report.

37108

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Automatic Copy when highlighted

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 11:04 PM »

true x-mouse (http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/nt/TXMouse/) sure sounds like a program that does exactly what was requested here, and surely this is the mystery program looper told us about.

i note the program had its last update only last month, so it's actively being worked on.  i suggest anyone having issues with it who wants such a program consider writing to the author and offering himself up as a beta tester - it looks like a really powerful program to do exactly the kind of thing people here were interested in.  and let author know he is welcome to come by here and use this forum as means of getting feedback on new releases.

37109

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: modify system path (System Path Commander)

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 06:16 PM »

one thing that may need clarification..


both of the other appPath programs are designed for editing a windows registry key that related to paths to specific programs.

System Path Commander does something completely different.
It helps you manage the global system path, which is used when the system searches for programs that are executed.

For example if you have perl or a c++ compiler installed, their paths typically get added to the global system path, so that the compiler tools and interpreters can be found when invoking them.

I think it's also importan to note that SPC turned out to be a significant amount of work.
On the surface its a very simple idea, after all you are just editing a list of directories.
However, if you use the program you will see that some serious work went into making it safe (it keeps detailed logs, is careful about not saving when not asked, etc.), and most importantly, it has features for letting you temporarily disable entries by removing them from the registry key for environment path, but keeping a careful record of them, and their proper order, etc.  the program also has a bunch of cool extra features, like indicating new keys, letting you drag and drop to change order, converting long paths to short versions to save space, etc.

it's a unique program as far as i know.

37110

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: perform random url queries (Random Submitter)

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 06:05 PM »

good idea, i'll add it in next version.

37111

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: More of 256 Characters in a Path alert

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 06:04 PM »

what happens when a c coder with a strong background in assembly, who has written his own custom standard c library replacement, tackles a request?  the result is a zen like study of efficiency and minimalism.

jibz just sent me his 7k drag+drop utility to perform this and report on some other nice info; it's available now on coding snacks the download page.

https://www.donation...dingSnacks/index.php

37112

Best Virtual Machine Tool / virtual pc vs. vmware

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 11:39 AM »

http://www.mcpmag.co...asp?EditorialsID=428

37113

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: Periodic Messages+Time on the Printer (Print time)

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 10:09 AM »

its probably not worth writing an options dialog for this tiny util..

its easy to create a shortcut to launch the program in sneaky mode, just right click on the exe, select "create shortcut"
then right click on the new shortcut, click "properties", and add -sneakyp to the end of the "target" line.

37114

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: Periodic Messages+Time on the Printer (Print time)

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 09:53 AM »

what i did was slightly different than original request.

i modified my DoubleClickQuotes tool to take as a commandline option the flag: -sneakyp

when invoked with that commandline option, it will start up invisible (not in tray or taskbar)
and every hour it will print date/time and a random quote.

good for playing jokes on friends.

dont forget you can make your own quotes file to say things like "Printer Error #3423424323" if you are feeling particularly evil.

Download Page: https://www.donation...dingSnacks/index.php

Special Thanks to jibz who figured out how to send text to the printer with winapi!

37115

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: Save and Exit

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 06:12 AM »

you could probably accomplish this with most programs by using a hotkey manager to send Ctrl+S followed by Alt+F4.
or alternatively, sending Alt+F -> S -> Alt+F4

37116

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: Text Editor just for text (stay with me)

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 05:04 AM »

mark this day in your history books..
i think zaine has created a new movement..
a new underground scene is going to rise up from zaine's original post, dedicated to removing features from software, eliminating menus and buttons from existing programs, splicing stuff out of help files, etc.

37117

Living Room / Re: All else being equal... do you prefer an Open Source app?

« Last post by mouser on May 22, 2005, 05:02 AM »

if all things were equal i would *much* rather have the Open Source.

an open source program is one i can modify and customize if I want to - and it's one that i know i can fix if at some point it turns out to have a bug.

if you code and use commercial libraries/components you end up commonly in such scenarios, where the library has a bug of some sort or turns out to be missing some feature you need, and by the time you discover it you've invested a lot of effort into using the library, so it's not easy to just stop using it and use another.  Open Source means not having to worry about this.

I also like to support open source software because I think it's important that we encourage the development of software that everyone can afford.  give a dollar to a man who sells fish and you've bought yourself a fish.  give a dollar to a man who gives away fish and asks for donations and you've helped keep a free fish machine working and available to everyone.

On the other hand i have to agree that it's (too me) surprisingly rare to find an open source program that is better than the best commercial counterpart program.  It's almost a sure thing that you'll find open source programs better than some commercial program in their class, but to find an open source program that is the best-in-class is, from my experience, very rare.

I think i've discussed this before - and i think a lot of it comes down to motivation to work on the non-fun parts of making software.  A super high premium is placed on the enjoyment of coding open source software.  that's why it's so common to find open source programs lacking documentation.. it's just not very fun to write documentation..

and to be the best program in its class requires a lot of polishing and fine tuning, and documentation writing, etc.  things that just aren't very fun.

37118

Post New Requests Here / Re: Maya Paint effects screensaver randomizer

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 11:46 PM »

ill be working on this if no one else does..
im just gonna wait a while since its a commandline app and a few of the other programmers here like commandline tools, and im working on another app at the moment that im hoping to have up in a couple days.

37119

Developer's Corner / Re: where to start learning

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 11:07 PM »

linux has good java support if you want to do graphical user interface stuff on linux.
you could also try MONO for C# on linux.
and if you are not interest in graphics user interface stuff and just want to do commandline coding, then c++ is fine.

37120

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: perform random url queries (Random Submitter)

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 09:31 PM »

yes, they were being truncated - bug in my string replacement routine.
i uploaded a new version with fix.

37121

Post New Requests Here / Re: Maya Paint effects screensaver randomizer

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 07:38 PM »

a clarification -
im not sure i was correct in saying that a proxy would necesarily interfere with control panel configuration and preview - i guess if its just a matter of passing on command line, it might be possible for proxy to pass on everything to the target screensaver and make it seem identical.

37122

Finished Programs / Re: DONE - IDEA: perform random url queries (Random Submitter)

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 07:32 PM »

modified to fix minimization weirdness and auto trim multiple spaces that might be introduced by $PRANDFILE$.

i also have taken to changing thread titles to match more general coding snack app functionality.

37123

Post New Requests Here / Re: Maya Paint effects screensaver randomizer

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 07:04 PM »

i tried this screensaver.
i like it a lot.

for people with multimon systems, it works great with multimon.

so i think i will help make sure this coding snack gets coded.

it does make me think though that maybe one would want to be able to make a tool that is capable of randomizing values in a config file rather than switching between preset configuration files.

so in my previous post i described a proposed program called RandomFileVersionReplacer.exe

an alternaive might be a program called RandomFieldReplacer.exe
which would have a config file like
BASEFILENAME
TEMPLATEFILE

ie:
C:/windows/system32/MayaPESaver.prf
C:/windows/system32/MayaPESaver.randomtemplate

and inside the .randomtemplate file would be things like
Category1={|plants|pipes|};PresentName1=...

basically the idea is that the program would parse the template
and whenever it saw
{|plants|pipes|};
it would replace it with either plants or pipes at random

for maximum flexability what would be nice would be
combine both programs into one
so basically

RandomFileReplacer.exe
BASEFILENAME
TEMPLATEFILE1
TEMPLATEFILE2
TEMPLATEFILE3

so first thing it would do is pick a random template file
and then fill any random template fields while replaceing, might be none..

of course this still doesnt address the issue of running this tool before invoking the screensaver, but it does seem like a nice solution to the main issue.

also i just remind us, its not strictly nesc. to come up with a solution that runs before the screensaver.. running after the screensaver would have same randomizing effect.

but lets assume we do want to go with this approach of a proxy screenaver, let me lay out how it would work

lets called it ProxyScreensaver.scr

it would have an ini configuration file like this:
SCREENSAVER RealScreensaverName.scr
PREOP programtorunBEFOREscreensaver.exe arg1
POSTOP programtorunBEFOREscreensaver.exe arg1 arg2

so the config file could specify any number of pre and post operation exe commands to invoke

the proxy screensaver should also be able to obey the commandline screensaver options used by screensavers to invoke a screensaver preview and configuration of the proxy screensaver.

opinions?

37124

Post New Requests Here / Re: Maya Paint effects screensaver randomizer

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 06:44 PM »

yes this certainly could be done.  a .scr is just an .exe with some extra features that make it possible to preview it and stuff in the screensaver dialog.

i was just lamenting that this approach would mean that when you went into the screensave control panel, you would no longer be able to configure the maya screensaver because the proxy exe screensaver would be there instead.

37125

Post New Requests Here / Re: Maya Paint effects screensaver randomizer

« Last post by mouser on May 21, 2005, 05:46 PM »

yea, this is exactly the kind of approach i was thinking of.

now the problem with creating a loader for the .scr is that for example, you would be messing up the screensaver configuration system, which would no longer be able to configure the screensaver properly (since it would be trying to configure the simple loader).  though this is still definitely a possibility.

first things first,
the idea of randomly replacing the configuration file seems like the way to go, and a general solution that could be useful for other things
so we can imagine a simple commandline tool, whose job was to maintain a list of alternate configuration files and which would simple overwrite a main one with contents of one of the others.

so for example RandomFileVersionReplacer.exe
with a config file that looked like
 BASEFILENAME
 ALTFILE1
 ALTFILE2
 ALTFILE3
 ...

so you would use in your case
 C:/windows/system32/MayaPESaver.prf
 C:/windows/system32/MayaPESaver_myversion1.prf
 C:/windows/system32/MayaPESaver_myversion2.prf
 C:/windows/system32/MayaPESaver_myversion3.prf

and this commandline tool when invokes would simply choose of those 3 and overwrite contents of MayaPESaver.prf with it.
simple enough and general purpose enough that it might find use elsewhere.

now the second part you would need is some way of triggering that command appropriately..
there might already be some tool to let you run commands whenever the screensaver runs.. that might be one solution, though it would probably require running some app in the background at all times..