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4151

General Software Discussion / Re: VLC - Is it worth it still?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 21, 2012, 02:00 PM »

SPlayer Portable plays everything I need accept for the occasional video that has PGS subs. WMP 12 handles those.

VLC also supports PGS subtitles. That's the main reason I haven't deleted the folders. Every version since 1.0 is crash prone on my systems. I must have said something to make it mad. It loved me before 1.0.

4152

Living Room / Re: Coffee Mug or when Plastic is done right!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 21, 2012, 02:57 AM »

we need to find a wide base mug with a cap made of ceramic

-superboyac (August 21, 2012, 01:19 AM)

My mug has no funky taste or after-taste. That's what's so great about it. The cap is a blue flexible plastic. I've found some other plastic mugs where the cap didn't have an after-taste. They had colored plastic sip caps, not black. But as I mentioned the shapes are top heavy and the design doesn't keep the coffee hot anyway.

Probably the same guy who believed they were going to stop making Coke Classic has the Blockbuster mugs in an underground bunker along with Mickey Mouse watches and a few decommissioned nukes.

4153

Living Room / Re: Coffee Mug or when Plastic is done right!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 21, 2012, 02:51 AM »

You snuck in while I was typing ... the cap obviously is your biggest problem

-barney (August 20, 2012, 11:22 PM)

I'm devious that way.   I'm just curious more than anything. I'll try to make my mug last as long as I can. It's been so long ago the producer of the promotion probably threw away the records anyway.

It's just kind of frustrating because when I tell people how great this mug is they have no way to get one or try it themselves. A shame to see a good design discarded. So much of the stuff out there looks like it was designed to make you not enjoy drinking coffee out of it.  The devious plan is probably make it look good, you buy it, can't stand to use it, then you just keep buying more. Must be a plot by the Tea Baggers.

4154

Living Room / Re: Coffee Mug or when Plastic is done right!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 20, 2012, 11:01 PM »

Miles, you may be the one member that will enjoy my first ever web article:
The Ultimate Desktop Mug

-superboyac (August 20, 2012, 09:05 PM)

Hmm, I didn't notice any mention of the black cap issue. I take it there was no lame after-taste? As I mentioned, every metal/black plastic hybrid I ever tried as soon as I put my lips to the plastic, I didn't want to drink the coffee.

4155

Living Room / Re: Coffee Mug or when Plastic is done right!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 20, 2012, 10:54 PM »

You might as well use Sanka instant

-MilesAhead (August 20, 2012, 06:04 PM)

Now, that would be gross   .  Have you thought about finding someone with a 3D printer?  Might be worth a thimk.

-barney (August 20, 2012, 07:38 PM)

I worked in a garage where we all chipped in $2 a week for coffee. The boss drank Sanka. So that's what it had to be. Fortunately he also got hot chocolate. I wasn't much into hot chocolate but in the winter you have to drink something hot doing garage work in a cold climate. I couldn't complain since every time a surplus built up in the coffee fund he took us out to a restaurant gratis.

It's too bad there seems to be no way to get the specs for the mug. The cost probably wouldn't be prohibitive if made in a lot of 100 or 200 mugs by one of those promotional manufacturers. It's been awhile since I looked at those ads.  Thing I noticed with any plastic mug similar was the sip cap tended to be very brittle. Not flexible and comfortable like this one. All the ones I tried in department stores or supermarkets the cap seemed too hostile to use as my primary coffee mug.

4156

Living Room / Re: Coffee Mug or when Plastic is done right!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 20, 2012, 10:47 PM »

Hmmm, Perhaps we should get DoCo to sponsor a coffee mug of this fashion!

-Josh (August 20, 2012, 07:48 PM)

I was tempted to post on the DC mug thread. But I didn't want to hijack.

4157

Post New Requests Here / Re: [IDEA] Opening List of Links

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 20, 2012, 06:13 PM »

Hmm, with Opera once you create the panel of links you can do Select All from the Edit Menu, then paste in an editor such as EditPadLite.  From there delete unwanted links and save as a text file for use with Browser Bunch. Easier than right clicking one at a time to clipboard or dragging individual links onto the editor.

4158

Living Room / Re: Coffee Mug or when Plastic is done right!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 20, 2012, 06:04 PM »

When I got that mug Blockbuster was only renting VHS tapes. DVD rental didn't exist.

They must have drawn up their own specs for the promotion. Damn good mug!! Way better than any of those metallic mugs with the black plastic after-taste sip tops. Those look cool but they make your coffee taste like crap. You might as well use Sanka instant if you're going to drink it out of those things. 

4159

Living Room / Coffee Mug or when Plastic is done right!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 20, 2012, 05:33 PM »

Just hit upon another thread looking for DC coffee mug art work. It reminded me of my favorite coffee mug. Unfortunately I can't find a replacement anywhere. When it dies it's gone.  I can't afford to bid on E-bay for memorabilia. I've never seen a plastic coffee mug designed as well as this.

Note the width of the mug. When it's on the desk you don't have to worry about knocking it over. Low center of gravity.



Also the brilliance of the design is to use air as insulator, rather than heavy ceramic. Note this mug keeps my coffee hot much longer than any ceramic or other mug I've used.




Plastic end pieces shown.  The dark blue sippy piece is softer than the shell of the mug body. It's very comfortable.



and the shot from the other side for completeness.



I've looked all over the web and I've never seen this exact design.  Too bad the promotion was one per customer or I would have gotten back in line to rent more movies.

4160

Post New Requests Here / Re: [IDEA] Opening List of Links

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 20, 2012, 03:06 PM »

@NigelH that's a nice feature. Esp. with the filter input.

4161

Post New Requests Here / Re: [IDEA] Opening List of Links

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 19, 2012, 09:42 PM »

Similar functionality but works with many browsers is Browser Bunch

It will read in a text file of links then pop up a Gui with buttons for up to 6 browsers. It requires loading of the urls in a text file. As with the folder method above, it requires a preparatory step. But you're only limitation is that the browser can open multiple urls in new tabs from the command tail. See the link for details.

4162

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Simple "overlay" to CHM (Help) file which allows highlighting, annotation

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 17, 2012, 01:47 PM »

I'm no html/css expert but it may be better when working text to use tags and css to enlarge fonts and change text color to highlight instead of converting everything to an image format. The learning curve is likely a lot higher though. The advantage of keeping text as text is you don't get stuck doing some OCR later on if everything is converted to an image. Then again I'm no PDF expert either. Perhaps there's an easier way around the problem. But html header tags aren't that difficult. Also you can name areas and set the font size and color using css. I think that all gets translated into the .chm. The tough part is getting the end result to look good as far as spacing, indentation etc..

I did it the hard way because it was cheaper.

4163

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 17, 2012, 01:39 PM »

Hmm, I notice the copyright on the site only says:
Copyright © 2005-2010 David Carpenter

Just as a weird aside, try googling David Carpenter. You get a serial killer, relief pitcher, actor, director of the Institute for Health & Environment at UAlbany, and, as the maketing types always say, and more!!!. No wonder there's no time to program!!

-MilesAhead (August 14, 2012, 05:43 PM)

And they're the same person!!

Jim

-J-Mac (August 17, 2012, 12:52 PM)

I hope not!  I don't want corpse coordinates popping up when I'm just searching for a file.

4164

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Simple "overlay" to CHM (Help) file which allows highlighting, annotation

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 17, 2012, 12:14 AM »

Another "free" alternative may be to decompile the .chm and use a wysiwyg editor on the individual html pages. I haven't used such an html editor in a long time. If there are any that do highlighting and let you treat the page as an image I don't know.  But it's not that difficult to decompile .chm using html workshop and compile it back together. If you have a fully functioning .chm to start.

I did get a free html help tool called HelpMaker. Didn't do that much with it. But just know trying the embedded links comes up with dead pages. Must've gone under or are keeping a low profile.

4165

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Studio 11 Express to only build Metro apps

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 16, 2012, 02:50 PM »

Isn't Windows XP the IE6 of operating systems at this point?

-daddydave (August 16, 2012, 05:26 AM)

Not really, imho.

While XP is definitely a bit long in the tooth, it's still a well functioning operating system - not nearly the holding-back-progress showstopper deadbeat massively-exploited and standards-violating P.O.S that IE6 is

-f0dder (August 16, 2012, 02:31 PM)

Hmm, talk about feature bloat! A Point Of Sale system integrated with a browser? No wonder it was a pig!! 

4166

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 15, 2012, 05:44 PM »

Hmm, as of 2011 he claims he hasn't given up the ghost. But that's a long time with no future word:

http://forum.voidtoo...c.php?f=9&t=1107

4167

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 15, 2012, 05:40 PM »

Maybe the web page is a freebie?  Sometimes it takes a long time before they rip down the free pages. Slips through the cracks. Hard for me to believe the dude is paying a monthly fee and not even putting in the download link. But with automatic bill pay you never know.

4168

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 14, 2012, 10:39 PM »

I guess when some people are done, they're done. "Nope, I'm done messing with hand grenades. Won't stoop to put the pin back in. I'm onto something new now."
 

-MilesAhead (August 14, 2012, 09:32 PM)

Nice metaphor!  Hope it isn't accurate, though.  Could be the case that they've, "... shuffled off this mortal coil."

-barney (August 14, 2012, 09:50 PM)

Hope not. That's a nice software. I just realized I was running 1.2.1.451a instead of 452. I have to start keeping notes one of these days. I'm thinking I may have experienced a bug and gone back to the previous alpha. Anyway, I'm running 452a now.  See if it bugs out on me.

The way google is going these days the guy might have a tough time getting a job. I can see the interview now, "are you sure you're Dave Carpenter the software developer, not Dave Carpenter the serial killer?"  Ouch!!

4169

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 14, 2012, 09:32 PM »

I can understand moving on. But wouldn't you copy your last version to the download page? One anchor tag and a zip file is all it takes. It just seems strange.

-MilesAhead (August 14, 2012, 08:46 PM)

Well-l-l-l ... maybe they did ... unlikely we'll find out, though, at this late date <sigh />  .

-barney (August 14, 2012, 09:00 PM)

If you look at the download links on the forum, the zip files are being downloaded from that site. So one anchor tag would do it.  Maybe the person is otherwise engaged. I guess when some people are done, they're done. "Nope, I'm done messing with hand grenades. Won't stoop to put the pin back in. I'm onto something new now."
 

4170

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 14, 2012, 08:46 PM »

I can understand moving on. But wouldn't you copy your last version to the download page? One anchor tag and a zip file is all it takes. It just seems strange.

btw I don't do understudy. Jokes I've been saying for years I see in media. For instance, I was just watching an episode of the old Lois and Clark Superman show that originally aired in the 90s. Lois asks Clark if maybe the bad guy is a disgruntled employee.  Clark then says "what do they call people who are happy with their work? Gruntled employees?"  I've been saying that for like 3 or 4 decades.

Likewise in the film The Guard where Sergeant Gerry Boyle criticizes the FBI guy for giving an inflated street value for the drug bust they are trying to make.  Boyle says "I don't know what street you buy your cocaine on, but it ain't the same street I buy my cocaine on."  I made that joke back in the 80's I think.

Later on the FBI guy tries to show Boyle pictures of his kids. He declines.  The reason being "all babies look alike unless the baby is extremely ugly. So unless you're going to show me a picture of an extremely ugly baby, I don't want to see it." I came out with that in the early 90s. Where I worked everyone wanted to show me baby pics out of their wallets.Extremely boring.

That usually quashed the urge.    

If there's theft it's in the other direction dude.

4171

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 14, 2012, 05:43 PM »

Hmm, I notice the copyright on the site only says:
Copyright © 2005-2010 David Carpenter

Just as a weird aside, try googling David Carpenter. You get a serial killer, relief pitcher, actor, director of the Institute for Health & Environment at UAlbany, and, as the maketing types always say, and more!!!. No wonder there's no time to program!!

4172

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 14, 2012, 05:30 PM »

Seems I got 1.2.1.452a  Here awhile back.

I asked if it's still being developed via Contact form. If I get a non-automated reply I'll post about it.

4173

General Software Discussion / Re: Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 14, 2012, 04:02 PM »

Yeah, that's where I refer people. But you would think it would be on the regular download page by now. I haven't encountered any bugs. Works fine.

4174

General Software Discussion / Why Everything 1.2.1.451a still Alpha?

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 14, 2012, 03:01 PM »

Just wondering why this Everything release is still Alpha. I've been using it for quite awhile with no problems.  People get antsy(or is it ansi?) when you send them to a forum page instead of the product's main download page. Seems like it should be on the main download page by now?

4175

Living Room / Re: Olympic coverage this year SUCKS!

« Last post by MilesAhead on August 12, 2012, 07:53 PM »

They're profiling people looking for anyone that is too nervous/properly engaged with the event/etc., so he got targeted. And as usual the profiling got a bit out-of-hand.
...

-Stoic Joker (August 10, 2012, 06:56 AM)

That reminds me of an old joke(I try to use those in the Public Domain(tm) since I can't afford royalties)
...

Back when the hijackings of American flights were usually to divert the plane to Cuba, they came up with Sky Marshals to counter the threat. These were non-uniformed law enforcement types on the lookout for suspicious passengers.

The joke goes that due to an administrative error, two Sky Marshals were assigned to the same flight. They reported each other to the Stewardess(as they were called back in the 60s) as the most suspicious passenger on board.  

(I think Archie Bunker had a simpler solution. Instead of all the bureaucratic red tape just have someone pass out pistols to the passengers as they get on board, and another guy collect them at the destination.)