Recent Posts

37151

Screenshot Captor / New Official Page for Screenshot Captor

« Last post by mouser on May 20, 2005, 03:51 AM »

Screenshot Captor is stable enough that i gave it its own page with the rest of my software:

https://www.donation...hotcaptor/index.html


I can't tell you how much I appreciate you guys helping me find and fix bugs - it really makes all the difference.

37152

Living Room / Re: "The Problem with Microsoft is..."

« Last post by mouser on May 20, 2005, 01:49 AM »

the blog looks great, going to sit down with a beer and give it a read.

regarding ms, i am slowly turning into one of those MS haters, despite my struggle against it.

 It's not that i don't recognize the great stuff
they've done, but i've grown increasingly intolerant of the horrible
stuff they've unleashed.  For example i don't know if you've
experienced any of the evilness that is the Microsoft Windows
Installer, a totally unnesc. thing that never needed to be written,
and can cause some truely f*cked up behavior, like programs trying to
"fix" themselves and rolling back installs, and generall causing
unfixable havok based on whimsy.  I use MS Word for academic writing
quite a bit and it never ceases to amaze me how insane it can be about
reformating paragraphs based on neighboring formating.  ie headers of
one type merge into another,etc.  Each version comes out with more
insane features (like changing menus), while these fundamental things
don't get fixed.  Its stuff like that, and some of the decisions they
make (wordperfect has a "show hidden codes" option that lets you see
the secret formatting codes that can help you figure out whats going
on; naturally ms has no interest in helping you to see this).

I installed MS XP sp2 and it broken my MS Visual c++ compiler.  the
error message: "internal error".

in fact, it blows my mind the the most likely probablems i encounter
on my computer are inevitably due to ms products interfering with each
other in this way...

i spent about 6 or 7 hours over two days when testing ftp servers, trying to figure out why
 for some reason, i could no longer generate server ssl certificate.  no matter what program i tried to use, the build int ftp server certificate generating programs, or microsoft's ssl self-signing certificate utility, they all simply refused to run, exiting with a meaingless message.

i finally stumbled on a newsgroup post that suggested the problem might be caused by not having correct folder permission on some deep folder, and in fact that was the problem. it's things like this, not reporting a useful error, that kills me the most.  it's not that i mind so much that something has gone wrong, but at least least tell me enough to know wtf it is i should try to fix.

MS pull this shit consistently.  why do i need  to hire a team of professionals to figure out how to disable a word addin?  why are such addins scattered in various places and each have their own technique for disabling?

i recently wrote a program on this site to change the default browser.
you don't want to know how many semi-redudant, conflicting, insane registry settings their are that all effect default browser.

it is enough to drive you mad.

personally i know there is no god, because if there was, he would come down and make us start the computer revolution over again.

37153

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« Last post by mouser on May 20, 2005, 12:17 AM »

v1.01.05 - you can now add as many custom external tools as you want to the Tools menu.

37154

Flash Games and 2XL Simulator / cartridges already digitized

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 08:11 PM »

i'll keep an updated list here of tapes that have already been digitized and are not needed:

GeneralInformation
AdultGames
GamesAndPuzzles1
GeneralInformation2
GuinnessWorldRecords
MetricSystem
ScienceFiction
ScienceFiction2
Sports
Sports2

37155

Flash Games and 2XL Simulator / finding 2xl stuff on ebay

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 08:10 PM »

here's a good search to find 2xl stuff on ebay:

 ("2xl","2-xl") (robot,toy,8track,"8-track")

that will find most all 2xl related auctions.

37156

Flash Games and 2XL Simulator / can you help with 2xl audio tape recording?

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 08:06 PM »

I'd love some more help digitizing tapes for 2xl from anyone who has a 2xl and some tapes, or wants to do some ebay shopping

I've posted a page with guidelines on how i converted the 2xl tapes to digital form for use in the simulator:
https://www.donation...L/cartinstructs.html

but i'd be willing to do the work of converting files to the right format and tweaking them so that they align properly.

contact me before you do any digitizing so that we can make sure people dont waste effort on the same tapes.

anyone who contibutes will of course get credit on the simulator page and will get offline cd/dvd of the simulator.

37157

DesktopCoral / Re: Transparency, a way to refresh

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 08:00 PM »

that's interesting..

actually desktopcoral relies on the operating system to make it look transparent, so it might be a function of the windows graphics driver that is cause thing..  but i might be able to help your scenario by telling to to repaint itself when it resizes.. ill add it to the next version.

37158

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 07:35 PM »

minor update with better undo support (ctrl+z).

i think the feature set has stabilized enough now for me to update the help file and start tracking version changes.

37159

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

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 01:47 PM »

great idea, and definitely something that can be done as a snack.

i'm sure this one can be written by someone this at next coding snacks weekend.

37160

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 08:51 AM »

version 1.01.02 is now up (same url):
[link out of date]

tons of new stuff.

hopefully no more crashing

Make sure you check out the new organized options page.

suggestions wanted, i'll probably make a page for this in my downloads section this week.

If you're upgrading, you'll probably want to clear your filename prefix field on the main window, since there is now a separate field in the options dialog that servers the purpose that this field used to serve.

37161

Developer's Corner / Re: where to start learning

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 06:18 AM »

here's a bit of coder humour for you.

everytime i make a post somewhere saying how i have been using c++ for 20 years, i always get a quick message from jibz with something snarky like this:

[Jibz] hmm .. it continues to amaze me that you started with c++ before the first edition of The C++ programming Language was published
[Jibz] you were really up front back then

he never lets me get away with anything !

ive been programming in c and c++ for the last 20-25 years.  at what point i switched from c to c++ i can't remember, though it was probably sometime after the invention of c++.

btw i am an OOP (Object Oriented Programming) true believer - i think it's one of the greatest inventions of man, and will reshape the way your mind works for the better

37162

Developer's Corner / Re: where to start learning

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 06:07 AM »

c++ is one of the harder languages to learn, because it has so many oddities that come from its long history and need for backward compatibility.

i have a real love/hate relationship with c++.  it is my primary language and has been so for over 20 years.
but i am increasingly skeptical of its longevity and the current modern languages are moving in a better direction imho in terms of consistency,etc.
though i must say i haven't found a language yet that i am willing to switch over to full time.

i like a lot of the ideas of c# and i think that might be a reasonable choice for someone interesting in learning; so would java. python as well.  perl i would avoid - it's very powerful but for learning i think it teaches the wrong sloppy things.

my advice to people who are trying to learn is somewhat non-standard. i have always found that for new learners, staying motivated and staying the course can be the hardest part.

so my usual suggestion is take a take when you have some time and find yourself a bookstore, and browse.  go through books until you find one that really speaks to your style of learning.  at least for your first jump into the subject, i think finding a book that speaks to you may be the most important.  It's very hard to find book reviews for newbie programmers, because those who review programming books are experts and they won't care about what you care about.

the current favorite c++ text book (and they make java and c# as well) is by Deitel and Deitel.
http://www.deitel.com/books/cpphtp5/

these are big comprehensive good books, but im not sure they will inspire you.

c++ is a hard language to learn and a harder language to master.  it has no build-in user interface or graphics or networking libraries, and it can be hard to add such things to your code, which makes it a very frustrating learning experience in the short term, expecially for windows users.

languages like c# and java are full serious languages like c++ but are a little more gentle and have user interface libraries integrated, which can give you a much more immediate sense of satisfaction..

the so-called scripting languages like python, lua, ruby, etc are even more immediate satisfaction types of languages.

again, you really can't go wrong with any of these, browse some books and see which one has some sample programs that excite you.

no matter what you choose, if you stick with it you will learn it.

37163

Best E-mail Client / How I set up my mail folders

« Last post by mouser on May 19, 2005, 04:22 AM »

Thought it might be interesting if we shared our techniques for managing our mail.
Here's what I do, I use thebat but i'm guessing you could use similar approach to most email clients.

In addition to my normal accounts I have 2 addition global folders, and each of these as a child folder):

+Incoming Spam
--Confirmed Spam
+Incoming Mailing Lists
--Read Mailing Lists

Then i have all my various email accounts (about 5 different email accounts)

I use "common" filters which are shared between all acounts to detect spam and mailing lists.
These filters always mark the mail read and move in tinto either Incoming MailingLists, Incoming Spam or Confirmed Spam (if i'm 100% confident that the filter is never going to false positive spam).  All of these filters mark the mail read, since i don't need to be alerted to these emails.

Then i ocassional check those two top level incoming folders, to make read mailing lists or check that everything identified as spam is really spam, and i move to those emails to the confirmed/read sections.  Occassionally i delete the confirmed spam.  You can see my basic approach is better safe than sorry, keep everything until you are sure you'll never need it.

Then in each email account, in addition to the default Inbox,
I create folders for "Inbox - Known", "Inbox - To Be Files", and "Inbox - To Reply".

I have a filters in each account that say all mail from known users in my address book, goes to the account "Inbox - Known" folder, so that my address book acts basically as what they call a 'white list'.  I use right-click on messages from new people to add them to my address book.

A default filter sends all other mail to the "Inbox - To Be Filed" folder.

I manually drag+drop messages that I need to reply to later into the "Inbox - To Reply" folder so i don't forget to reply.

Oh, and I also use different sounds for different folders so that I can tell audibly when messages to different accounts/folders arrive.
The sounds I use are downloadable from the email review page, mainly chimes and similar things.

If anyone else has tips and tricks to share, please post.

37164

Best E-mail Client / Re: Mail Sounds

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 11:30 PM »

oy.. i think if those were my emails i'd be driven insane within a week.

37165

Best E-mail Client / Re: TheBat Toolbars

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 11:29 PM »

not trying to cheerlead for thebat but..
it's interesting that i usually HATE and i mean HATE big icons buttons.
but strangely when i tried small icons for thebat, i quickly went screaming back for my big buttons -
i'm not sure exactly why, maybe i just got used to them.. but i think maybe it was just that i only use a few buttons when working with mail, send, reply, forward, queu, etc.,  and the big icons make it less likely i'll make a mistake.

also because i have the accounts listed as a full height left sidebar, and my toolbar is to the right of it (https://www.donation...ts/Screenshot_33.png),
i really have lots of spare space on the right hand side so i don't feel like im wasting space i need.

37166

Best E-mail Client / Re: Folder Content Counts

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 11:18 PM »

excellent.
and this is why moving to a two week review with member preview and comment is going make our reviews better and more accurate.

i will update the review saying the pocomail supports this.

37167

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 07:24 PM »

yes, ive added a ton of features already; will be uploading a new version shortly.

reorganized options.
some cool effects which can be used to highlight the active window in a screenshot (my fav new feature).
cursor capture options; better support for multimon capturing
better save and autoname options.

other things planned:
ability to specify more external tools to invoke.
save comments in png images.
auto detection of active window/exe name for use in file naming.

other ideas are welcome - keep in mind the approach ive taken is to be very minimal on image editing, with the expectation that you will do this in an external editor (which the program should make as easy as possible to invoke), and focused more on facilitating fast and easy capture of lots of images one after the other.

37168

Best E-mail Client / Re: TheBat Toolbars

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 06:32 PM »

by the way, the new toolbar system in thebat is new and still be worked on, so you're probably experiencing some bugs they haven't worked out yet but which will probably be fixed in upcoming releases.  they have been working on adding customization and skins and different button sizes, and they havent gotten it perfected yet.

i also hope the fix the visual annoyance of toolbars not extending fully to the right.  it's not a functional issue but it does annoy me aesthetically.. i suspect they will do so.

37169

Best E-mail Client / Re: THEBAT! - DISCOUNT ORDER LINK HERE

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 05:50 PM »

that's the new $1million dollar Artificial Intelligence feature they added, TMYDWYTT.

"Trust Me You Don't Want Your Toolbar There"

37170

Best E-mail Client / Re: THEBAT! - DISCOUNT ORDER LINK HERE

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 05:26 PM »

my toolbars dont shift around, even when i squeeze the form down to the size of a quarter and resize it..
took me a while to get my toolbars docked to places i was happy about, but now that i have, they never move, which i really appreciate.  UltraEdit for example will auto move the toolbars when the window is shrunk, which means you have to remove them back after you restore the window.

check the 2 first screenshots in the review for 2 very different layouts for toolbars and windows (mine is the one on the left, the one on the right is from rit labs site).

37171

Screenshot Captor / Re: Beta Testers For ScreenshotCaptor?

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 03:52 PM »

thanks tenseiken, that's good news.
i'll work now on some new features.

37172

Best E-mail Client / Re: The Bat , the best ?

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 03:21 PM »

the home version does have spell checker, they've just made it so you have to download it separately for the home version.
it's their way of trying to give the pro users some extra convenience and justify the price.
you could look at it as annoying or else a reasonable way to differentiate user types without effective functionality..

either way, i *think* that as a home user you can just download the normal full pro download and use home license key to active home features, without having to do the separate downloads.

the review has a page showing differences between the home and pro.
http://www.ritlabs.c...ucts/thebat/diff.php

"For the Home Edition spell checker dictionaries can be downloaded separately, they are included in the International Pack. In the Professional Edition the dictionaries are a part of the standard installation file."

like i said though, i think everyone can really download pro version to avoid this need to download separately.. i think.


thanks for reminding me about all the addons for outlook - i meant to mention that in the review but forgot.. i will add it.

i agree that it's not an easy decision!

37173

Best E-mail Client / DonationCoder.com members - 50% discount for TheBat!

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 09:16 AM »

See the members only section.

who loves ya

37174

Living Room / Re: which hierarchical note program?

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 06:39 AM »

i have to say they KeyNote is a little overwhelming for me..
i prefer a simpler user interface.. i always liked the minimal approach of jot+
until they tried to charge me for an update i thought should have been free for members, and slowed down the start up of the program by using Aramadillo protection.  Nice way to take care of your customers 

37175

Living Room / Re: which hierarchical note program?

« Last post by mouser on May 18, 2005, 06:38 AM »

there are such programs.. for images i believe
programs for photographers that help you catalog images.
maybe acdsee already does it.  what about picasa?