Recent Posts

3876

General Software Discussion / Re: Thoughts on this sort of UI styling?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 04:41 PM »

Thanks, boss

I just can't bring myself to use unmodified UI controls. My eyes bleed, and I don't like that. Unfortunately all this designy stuff comes at the extra expense of real estate that is consumed by the whitespace, padding, margins, etc. What I'm trying to do here is to flesh out and evaluate the visuals and overall styling. This is the hard part. Reducing margins is a piece of cake.

-apankrat (November 19, 2012, 10:57 AM)

I'm just curious. Is the dialog created using UI stuff available on Vista and later? Or does the same code work on XP? I've seen some tutorials about the new dialog styles available on Vista and W7 but I didn't really study 'em. You know like those panels that say "such and such an app has stopped working" that are different than the old XP style.

3877

Living Room / Re: Anything wrong with formatting a USB stick in NTFS?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 04:38 PM »

Did a little investigation, seems things have changed since does-format-write-zeroes was last brought up. So it actually does make sense that a non-quick format has helped you

XP and below, "full format" actually only does quick-format + sector verification... Vista and onwards, you get zero-overwrite (and reallocation triggering). Yay research ^_^

-f0dder (November 19, 2012, 03:12 PM)

Glad you found that out. I had the "feeling" it was writing something all that time. But I wasn't certain.  Probably with format to the same file type the quickie is fine. But changing to another file type it may be worth it to spend the time for the full shootin' match.

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Living Room / Re: Anything wrong with formatting a USB stick in NTFS?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 02:57 PM »

It's probably the ghost in the machine. This isn't just cheapie pen drives but WD Caviar Black Sata III bare drives in USB 3.0 docks. None of 'em like the quick format. Maybe it's just a conspiracy by Windows Seven to waste 2 of my hours. Or perhaps the drives weren't aware of your theoretical objections.  In any case, just my experience. I realize the BMW convertible crowd may be able to do things the easy way.  That's how it goes.

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Living Room / Re: Anything wrong with formatting a USB stick in NTFS?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 02:47 PM »

I had a feeling you'd comment. All I can tell you is I've had problems with quick format both for bare drives and USB keys.  Long format fixed it up.  I don't really care why.

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Living Room / Re: Anything wrong with formatting a USB stick in NTFS?

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 02:33 PM »

If the device comes formatted as FAT32 my advice is to do a slow format when formatting to NTFS. I don't remember seeing it stipulated anywhere that it's required.  But I've had USB that I changed from FAT32 and once it got past the point where I had written the drive in the past, in terms of disk space used, I started getting flaky behavior.  They performed as expected after a slow format as NTFS.

Also to cut down on disk accesses with NTFS you can disable last access. I do that on all my systems. I don't use databases or backup robots that need that setting.

Just google "fsutil disable last access" for the command line.

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General Software Discussion / TEncoder 3.1

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 12:53 PM »

I've been using TEncoder free video encoder now and then for some time.

Entry on VideoHelp

SourceForge Home Page


I just upgraded to 3.0 and it seems to be improving nicely. The main reason I'm posting is 3.0 has a CPU Meter that's very handy. It displays percentage of CPU used in a fluctuating progress control. But the nice thing is now I don't have to run Core Temp and add up the percentages from the cores. This shows a simple percentage of the total CPU. It seems the code has been improved too. I use FFMPeg.  I can't speak to how well it works with MenCoder as the encoder.  Lately I have been doing remuxing to another container processing only the audio.  The video set to Direct Stream Copy.  The throughput is very fast and plays well on my WD set top box.

It still has a few quirks. I'm waiting to see what the author says as to why WD preset (mkv) has output container of MP4. I have to make manual tweaks.  But the processing seems to be done all inline.  There's no stages of splitting off the audio, encoding, remuxing as with some other encoders.  Just writes the output file as the progress bar moves along.  Very fast. I guess that's the way FFMPeg works. If you prefer MenCoder I'm not sure exactly what happens.

3882

General Software Discussion / Re: Browser Bunch 1.4.2.0 - with BBSS

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 12:42 PM »

But, yeah, whatever pill that artist was taking probably wasn't purchased with a prescription.

-MilesAhead (November 19, 2012, 10:27 AM)

lol, these days you wouldnt know

-tomos (November 19, 2012, 12:13 PM)

Heh. I guess you're right. I have to look on line. See if I can volunteer for a Hash Brownies for the Homeless charitable organization. 

3883

General Software Discussion / Re: Browser Bunch 1.4.2.0 - with BBSS

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 19, 2012, 10:27 AM »

I know nothing about Backstreet Boys other than the name. As you might guess from my Avatar I prefer real improvised jazz to marketing manufactured musicians.  Even so it is tough to keep up. The good local jazz station that played real jazz overnight 7 days a week went belly up 7 or 8 years ago.  It's too much of a pain to try to listen to streaming for more than a few tunes.  Seems like it always glitches out when music is on.  I haven't kept up on what's transpired since the "cool jazz influenced" phase. Seems like to get published a musician had to water it down to elevator compatibility.

I'll get back into it when I get bored messing with video.

But, yeah, whatever pill that artist was taking probably wasn't purchased with a prescription.

3884

General Software Discussion / Re: Transpose 2.3.2.3

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 18, 2012, 08:49 PM »

Transpose 2.3.2.3 Eliminated "autokill" of Everything Search after 10 minute time out. It caused intermittent crashes. Also restarting Everything via Shift Backspace involves a wait for indexing.  Better to just leave it running and activate the window, after initial start.

Hopefully this will cure intermittent Transpose crash problems.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Transpose 2.3.2.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 18, 2012, 06:07 PM »

Transpose 2.3.2.0 Bug fix for Close all Explorer Windows hotkey.

3886

General Software Discussion / Re: Transpose 2.3.1.8

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 17, 2012, 07:16 PM »

Transpose 2.3.1.8 Actually fixed the bug this time getting the process that owns the active window when the process is a native 64 bit process.  Now on 64 bit systems WMI Query is used to get the process path.  See prev. post for more details.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Tips for Windows 8 (got any?)

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 17, 2012, 02:53 PM »

I was hoping that existed -
I had found another forum - forumswindows8.com - which didnt really impress.

-tomos (November 17, 2012, 02:48 PM)

Not that MS MVPs are the be all and end all, but those forums have quite a few. They're sticklers about rules/licenses afa Windows is concerned. For that reason if you get a link to  Windows OS ISOs you can be confident they're legit. Very good tutorials also.

3888

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Anti-spyware.

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 17, 2012, 12:34 PM »

Thanks for suggestions. Tried both Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware. Finally decided to go for SuperAntiSpyware. It has a life-time license.

-BCHOWDHURY (November 17, 2012, 11:22 AM)

MBAM free version is fine for a scanner. I've been using it for a few years now. I have no desire to use the real-time features even if they were free. But I like the scanner. It downloads the database on every update. Approx. 6 MB of download. It may not be for those on dial-up. But the theory being if malware tampered with the db then it's refreshed on every update. (Could be there's no "theory" other than it's easier to program that way. I don't really know which is the case.)  

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General Software Discussion / Re: Tips for Windows 8 (got any?)

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 17, 2012, 09:04 AM »

I signed up for the forum linked below when it first opened. But I don't participate often as I don't intend to get W8. If their Vista and Windows Seven forums are any indication, this forum should be a wealth of Tutorials, lists of free W8 software, W8 news, and of course, categorized sob-forums to post various problems.

  Windows 8 Forum

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General Software Discussion / Re: Tips for Windows 8 (got any?)

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 16, 2012, 09:33 PM »

One thing I presume they'll bring in in SP1 is the option to boot to the desktop (I find it ludicrous that the option is not already there).

I haven't had a look at it, other than screen shots on the web. From people's comments though, it sounds like it should be a hand-held/tablet only OS. I mean they just bailed out of the Vista fiasco with a big W7 success so they immediately scuttle it?

Probably some real dick came out on top of the corporate infighting.. rather than some brilliant "design decision" is my guess.

3891

General Software Discussion / Re: Minimize all when switching fullscreen

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 16, 2012, 04:59 PM »

I'm not computer game knowledgeable.  But I did notice there's an ahk sub-forum for game issues. That may be an avenue to explore.

3892

General Software Discussion / Re: Tips for Windows 8 (got any?)

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 16, 2012, 09:40 AM »

My tip would be W8 for SP1.

-MilesAhead (November 15, 2012, 02:47 PM)

after a couple of hours use, I already have some ideas for that. Along the lines of church and state.

======
Can I ask people though to try and keep this thread fairly on-topic? I ask that more cause it's a popular topic to thrash out at the moment - there's lots of other win8 threads out there if you want to debate aspects of the OS.
thanks

-tomos (November 15, 2012, 02:57 PM)

My suggestion is totally serious. I think of all the Windows OS I tried before the first SP, the only one that didn't burn me was Windows 7.  I certainly wasted 2 months tuning Vista only to find 99% of the tweaks I made were there in SP1 when it finally came out.  Depends how you wish to spend your time; how anxious you are to get the latest greatest; you may need some particular feature; or the device has it on there and there's nothing you can do about it.  But the "burn ya'" percentage of pre-SP Windows is very high.

3893

Post New Requests Here / Re: Change name of particular file in all occurrences on hard disk

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 16, 2012, 09:36 AM »

Good point to check on.  Indeed, x86.  SAS says that even if you have an x64 system, to still use x86 Java and JVM.

As I may have mentioned above, SAS installed fine on a second hard disk in same system via dual-boot.  So problem is not the hardware.  Nor basic drivers present.  As those remain constant.

-nkormanik (November 16, 2012, 02:05 AM)

Can you copy the DLL from the dual boot side that works and try it?  All the .local does is force the DLL to be loaded from the same folder as the app for testing. I faintly remember using it when coding DLLs in Delphi maybe 10 years ago. This technique should be a substitute for the rename idea.  Rename the original DLL and try copying a few others, one at a time, to the local folder. If none of them work then it's likely some Java specific thing.  Have you tried posting on Java specific forum?  Someone else may have run into it.

3894

Post New Requests Here / Re: Change name of particular file in all occurrences on hard disk

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 15, 2012, 09:55 PM »

To use DLL redirection, create a redirection file for your application. The redirection file must be named as follows: App_name.local. For example, if the application name is Editor.exe, the redirection file should be named Editor.exe.local. You must install the .local file in the application directory. You must also install the DLLs in the application directory.

The contents of a redirection file are ignored, but its presence causes Windows to check the application directory first whenever it loads a DLL, regardless of the path specified to LoadLibrary or LoadLibraryEx. If the DLL is not found in the application directory, then these functions use their usual search order. For example, if the application c:\myapp\myapp.exe calls LoadLibrary using the following path:

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General Software Discussion / Re: Best Anti-spyware.

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 15, 2012, 05:29 PM »

I like MBAM.  I also started using ClamWin since it's open source. Gizmo's site has a big list

Often on that site the user comments talk up some software I was unaware of otherwise. You can find a few gems in the comments on occasion.  Kind of like using a metal detector at the beach. A lot of bottle caps. But here and there something worth picking up.

3896

General Software Discussion / Re: Tips for Windows 8 (got any?)

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 15, 2012, 02:47 PM »

My tip would be W8 for SP1.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Transpose 2.3.1.7

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 15, 2012, 02:44 PM »

Transpose 2.3.1.7 Bug fix. Alt Click to open selected url text in a new tab got an error in 64 bit browsers.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Transpose 2.3.1.6

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 15, 2012, 01:52 PM »

Transpose 2.3.1.6 Added code to prevent multiple copies of About Box from opening.

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Post New Requests Here / Re: Change name of particular file in all occurrences on hard disk

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 15, 2012, 01:03 PM »

It should only take a minute to try this work-around:
msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682600(v=vs.85).aspx

3900

General Software Discussion / Re: Transpose 2.3.1.5

« Last post by MilesAhead on November 15, 2012, 10:23 AM »

Transpose 2.3.1.5 Added Winkey-x hotkey to Close all Explorer Folders.