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4276

General Software Discussion / Re: Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by superboyac on December 07, 2009, 03:22 AM »

After googling around a little bit, I discovered that Light Alloy is still slowly being developed.  However, they are doing it all in Russian.  I don't blame them; I don't think anyone gave two seconds of thought to their software.  You can find the russian forum here:
http://www.softella.com/la/forum.ru.htm

Their original english site has not changed for a long, long time:
http://www.softella.com/

In their defense, and because I think some of you here actually would be interested, I am going to make the following statement:
Light Alloy is hands-down the fastest responding video player I have ever used.  Fastest to open a file, and fastest to close the program.
It responds beautifully.  No codecs are included, it uses the system installed decoders.  I know that will deter a lot of you, but give it a shot.  I think you will be impressed by its speed.

Anyway, using the google translater, I was able to see that it is still being slowly developed.  The updates are only available in the russian forum.  The english website still has the old version.  But if you want to purchase a license, the english site will give you a valid one.  Mine still works on the newer versions.  I've attached the latest installer here, just to make it easier to find for english users (version 4.4 build 873).

I hope this is helpful for any of you.

4277

General Software Discussion / Video player: What's the quickest (fastest/lightest)?

« Last post by superboyac on December 07, 2009, 02:49 AM »

I'm looking for the quickest responding video player out there.  Please note the emphasis on "quick".  I don't know what else word to use, but I'll try to describe it in more detail.  I'm not asking simply "what's the best" or "what's your favorite".  I want to know which player is the fastest as far as double-clicking on a file and starting the video.  Now, I'm well aware of the normal responses like VLC, MPC, KMPlayer, so before you just throw that out there, please remember that speed is what I'm looking for.  Normally, people just want to know what works with all video files, which the aforementioned software are all good with.  My question is different.

Let me describe how I use video players.  Like many here, I don't have just one favorite.  I use several of them depending on the situation.  However, I do have my "default" player which is the one associated with the video files on my system (Windows XP).  This is the one that opens up when I double-click on a video file, and this is the one that I have a question for.  I'm not concerned about DVD playing ability so much with this one.  OK, on with what I know so far.  Here's my little roundup and analysis:

Light Alloy
For years, this was my default double-clicker video player.  I know few, if any, of you use this one.  It's not free.  What I love about it is how quickly the video opens after double-clicking a file.  And it has a lot of configuration options to boot.  However, it does not include it's own codecs; it's only a player.  But I wonder if that's the very reason why it responds more quickly than the others.  I would continue to use this except development seems to have stopped, and it seems to crash a lot randomly recently, especially with larger files or HD files.

KMplayer
My second favorite of the bunch.  It has a lot of configuration options, and plays everything (codecs are included).  But it's significantly slower than Light Alloy.  I'd prefer something faster.  If this were faster, I would use it for sure.

GOM Player
Another good one (also comes with all codecs).  Faster response time that KMPlayer.  However, it has a couple of quircks I can't stand.  For example, there is a pause when you click once on the screen to play/pause, just in case you want to double-click for full-screen.  You can disable this pause, but then you lose the double-click option.  No other player handles it this way.  I find it annoying.  Also, I can't find a way to add previous/next buttons on the player.  If it were not for these things, I may prefer this one.

VLC
Not my favorite at all.  It's slow, and I don't like the interface at all.

SMplayer
Nice, but responds weirdly.  Not that fast, either.

MPC
Haven't tried it for years, but when i was using it, it was significantly slower than Light Alloy.

Zoom Player
I love Zoom.  It's actually pretty quick relative to the others.  I may settle on this one.  It's quicker to open than it is to close.  But it's faster than most of the other programs here, except maybe for Light Alloy.  It also seems to have a hard time with my larger or HD files.  Why?  I have no idea.  I have a pretty impressive computer, I can't imagine it not handling any kind of HD video.  Frankly, the idea of it annoys me a lot.


So, any suggestions?

4278

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: automated mp3 rip from video clip

« Last post by superboyac on December 03, 2009, 06:00 PM »

Nice program, skwire.

4279

General Software Discussion / Re: The DonationCoder "Superior Antivirus" Award/Certification

« Last post by superboyac on December 03, 2009, 03:41 PM »

Thanks AC! but i think we may need something a little more polished and slick and unique looking in order to make the pr people at these companies drooling to have the award image on their page.. this is one of those cases where the award image really has to be something crave-worthy.  no offense meant, just this might be one of those things that few people can really pull off perfectly outside Nick Pearson and a few of the top designers who hang out at DC.  Well at least if we're going to make a real go of this.  In the same vein, we should probably de-emphasize the "DonationCoder" part -- we're not trying to advertise ourselves here, but rather make something that anti-malware companies would want to put on their pages.  Also i might add that my title for the award may be a bit lame.. i wonder if we can't come up with something more appealing "Honest Antivirus Award" maybe? but it lacks punch.

-mouser (December 03, 2009, 01:56 PM)

I still might be able to pull it off.  If you want, let me know what it is you're looking for, and I'll try to do it.  The reason why i attempted it is because I've been learning Illustrator and doing a lot of art lately.  So just let me know.

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General Software Discussion / Re: The DonationCoder "Superior Antivirus" Award/Certification

« Last post by superboyac on December 03, 2009, 01:48 PM »

How's this?

4281

General Software Discussion / Re: The DonationCoder "Superior Antivirus" Award/Certification

« Last post by superboyac on December 03, 2009, 01:06 PM »

anyone want to try to make a nice fancy professional looking graphic logo for the page?

-mouser (December 01, 2009, 06:33 PM)

I can make a logo.

4282

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on December 01, 2009, 07:11 PM »

I know I recommended it in your other thread but I'll recommend Windows Home Server once again.  I've used it since being part of the beta test and love it.

-skwire (December 01, 2009, 05:47 PM)

Yeah, your post was the one that introduced me to it.  Thanks.  At this point, it looks like I'll go that way.

4283

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on December 01, 2009, 04:13 PM »

Thanks, 40!  yes, I've heard a lot of great things about Windows Home Server.  I should also mention that years ago, I got a free copy of Windows Server 2003 that I never used.  At the time, i was blown away by how fast it was relative to Windows XP, but I had no need for a server at the time.  Whatever, it's there.

i do want to build my own box.  I will try not to be wasteful with the energy consumption.  But it's going to have 3-5 drives in it.  That's fo sho.

4284

General Software Discussion / Re: Any XP users switching to Windows 7 yet?

« Last post by superboyac on December 01, 2009, 01:32 PM »

You know, I had this problem once a long time ago.  i don't remember what it was exactly, but I posted about it in these forums and it was fixed.  perhaps it is similar.  if I remember I'll let you know for sure.

OK i found it...
This is the thread.  The problem was SpySweeper.  That probably doesn't help you.  Sorry.

4285

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on November 30, 2009, 01:26 PM »

What are all the drives for? Maybe just get a large NAS and stick everything on that, then backup the NAS to an external drive. Lower power than a full system, takes up less space, possibly quieter, little or no maintenance, accessible from all systems on a network.

-JavaJones (November 30, 2009, 01:16 PM)

I considered that.  but I think I want to build my own system.  A large part of the drives are for backups.  I have a lot of files.  Each of my backup drives are already 1 TB, and they are more than 80% full already.  So I want to build a system that I can expand.  I also want to play around with a server.  I just don't like the idea of a NAS...too pre-packaged for me.  i don't really care about power consumption.  I don't mind the maintenance.  I care about quiet, but I don't see why it has to be that loud.  And I have plenty of space in my house.  I'm not trying to be an ass, I just wanted to address your concerns, which are very valid by the way.

4286

Living Room / Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by superboyac on November 30, 2009, 12:58 PM »

You guys here at DC helped me build my new PC earlier this year (see here), and it was fabulous.  Your advice and back and forth dialogue was a great way to figure everything out.  I truly took it all to heart and it resulted in the best rig I've ever made.

Anyway, with all the talk recently of backing up, I started my setup.  I encountered a problem I had never run into earlier about almost having too many hard drives.  Mouser correctly pointed out that after a certain number, Windows and/or my hardware may have certain issues with it.  So I started thinking about what the good solution is, and I think the answer is that eventually I will need some kind of home server, and that's where all this started from.

On my current setup, I have my main hard drive, another drive for storing documents, a backup drive (internal), and another backup drive (external).  The external enclosure actually houses 2 bays, so there's another drive in there that I mess around with.  That's 5 drives.  I also have a couple of other drives lying around that I'd like to make use of.

So, my initial idea is to set up some kind of server pc running one of the Windows Server flavors (2003, Home Server, 2008, etc.).  I'll put all the drive in there except for my main and document drives, and that will be my home server.  I'll connect it to my linksys router/wifi box and there you go.

What are your initial thoughts?  I'd love to hear them.  Don't be afraid to express your honest opinion.  Some people in my previous thread thought that my system was overkill and were worried that other people were recommending pricey hardware to me.  yes, my rig was expensive, but I'm also very happy with it after almost a year.

4287

Living Room / Re: Recommend to me the BEST USB stick to get

« Last post by superboyac on November 29, 2009, 12:22 AM »

Can you post a link?  I've been looking at a number of these, esp. the ones that scored high on large file write tests, but I keep seeing conflicting stuff in user reviews about not being able to plug the Pico-C into some ports.

Also I would be interested if you could give a ballpark benchmark writing a 100 MB or larger file onto it.

It's tough to know who to believe on these.  I read a benchmark test on a site claiming the Patriot Exporter XT was one of the high scorers on write tests.  But then on the store site a user review claimed it only wrote at about 9 MB/sec. when copying on large files.  Not all that fast when paying a speed premium.

-MilesAhead (November 28, 2009, 06:50 PM)

Regarding the speed, I can't help you there.  I don't know enough of that stuff to make heads or tails out of those benchmarks that I always see.  I just look at those graphs and usually gloss over it or say, "hmm...interesting" and move on.  Personally, I don't care too much about the speed of USB drives.  That is, unless it's annoyingly slow for some reason, but I've never run into that situation.  I've never noticed speed differences among usb drives.  Frankly, I don't know what you guys are looking for.  It's just a usb drive.  If I need performance, I look elsewhere.  All I care about is capacity and the physical features.  Anyway, sorry, I have no idea about that stuff.
As for the Pico-c, even though I don't know what they are talking about, most of the reviews said that the pico-c was among the faster ones.  Whatever.

I just transferred a 100 MB file to my pico-c.  It took 1:06.  But I had a bunch of other things going on in my computer.  So I don't know what that means.

Also, about the tight fit of the pico-c...I have had no problems with it and I've plugged it into over 10 computers by now.  yes, some were pretty tight.  but nothing happened.  You have to understand that some people just are obsessed with certain things and just harp on them forever when it's really not that big a deal.  So what if it's tight?  Big deal.  Nothing gets damaged so whatever.  And so what if benchmarks differ?  It's a usb drive, there are a lot of factors that affect how fast it is on any given day.  And in either case, it's way slower than other media like a hard drive.  To me, 90% of my choice is about the physical characteristics of the usb drive, 9% is the capacity, and 1% on things like read/write speed.

4288

Living Room / Re: Recommend to me the BEST USB stick to get

« Last post by superboyac on November 28, 2009, 06:18 PM »

many of the recommendations here are capless - has anyone had problems with that ? (visions of fluff or grit getting jammed in there if you dont check/clean it thoroughly before use...)

-tomos (November 28, 2009, 12:50 PM)

Let me repeat:  I have had ZERO problems with the Super Talent Pico-C.  It's tiny, capless, and indestructible.  I love this thing so much.  I keep it on my keychain in my pocket all day long, nothing happens.  I've never cleaned it, I've never had any issues at all.  In fact, I dropped it in my parents' driveway and it was there for three days before I found it.  Not a thing wrong with it.  It's a brilliantly designed USB drive.

4289

General Software Discussion / Re: Idea: A content management system that lives up to the name

« Last post by superboyac on November 25, 2009, 10:37 PM »

So what is the latest on this front?  I'm curious because I might try out such a system, especially if mouser or tranglos is writing the program.  I'm finding it difficult to add content regularly to my wordpress site, and I'd prefer it to be a more cms kind of thing rather than a blog faked to look like one.  And I would LOVE what mouser mentioned earlier about being able to do it with a file system and templates.  Anyway, I was just interested in any news updates.

4290

General Software Discussion / Re: Forte Agent reaches 6.0, now with "hide quoted text"

« Last post by superboyac on November 24, 2009, 07:11 PM »

I wish they would get out of their little mailing-list world and open up to hearing the comments of their other users.

-superboyac (November 24, 2009, 10:48 AM)

Mailing list world? Sure, accessing their support is accessible through a mailing list, but it's far from the only way. You can also access the same channel through the web & through usenet. No other company has so many ways to tap into their support channel.

-Innuendo (November 24, 2009, 06:36 PM)

I just think the whole mailing list method is no good.  It's an obstacle to the (subjective) preferred method which is public web forums.  As you can tell, I got the idea that my suggestions for the editor was uncommon because the only people responding were mailing list people.  And they are probably a very small percentage of the Bat users.  if it were a public web forum, we'd have a better idea what people want.  It's also my opinion that they like it this way to keep from hearing about this stuff.  My threads about the editor were removed and I was banned without warning in their fake web forum that no one uses anyway.  I've never been banned from any forum and I didn't even really do anything wrong, just criticize like I always do.  Anyway, it's still a great program, whatever.

4291

General Software Discussion / Re: Has anyone discovered any cool Windows 7 third-party utilities?

« Last post by superboyac on November 24, 2009, 03:44 PM »

Ha!  That's cool!  I didn't even realize that.  Thanks 40hz, as usual.  I love little things like that.

4292

General Software Discussion / Re: Forte Agent reaches 6.0, now with "hide quoted text"

« Last post by superboyac on November 24, 2009, 10:48 AM »

Whenever TheBat! comes up, on whatever forum, this issue is raised and most people hate it. I've only ever seen it defended by a few hardliners on TheBat mailing list. this "feature" is awfully annoying, and the developers' attitude adds insult to injury. I'd have given up on TB long ago, if it weren't so convenient (and, for me, reliable) in all other aspects.

The developers' sole rationale for how the plaintext editor behaves is that in the editor, you see exactly what will be sent. If a line is not wrapped, it will be sent unwrapped, etc. Well, it's true as far as it goes, but *so what*?

They may have had a point once, a long time ago, when word wrapping was still something of a luxury on certain platforms (and there were MTAs on Unix and VMS VAX systems that would unceremoniously truncate lines longer than a certain constant value), but that was in mid-nineties. The rationale makes no sense - it's like printing a newspaper that you cannot fold, to ensure what you see is exactly what came out of the printing press. Argh. You are certainly not alone in your frustration.

-tranglos (November 24, 2009, 07:59 AM)

I'm glad I'm not alone.  So what, indeed.  I wish they would get out of their little mailing-list world and open up to hearing the comments of their other users.

4293

General Software Discussion / Re: Forte Agent reaches 6.0, now with "hide quoted text"

« Last post by superboyac on November 24, 2009, 10:44 AM »

Not to derail the "Let's Bash The Bat!" train, but I'm curious as to if anyone is still using Agent? More specifically, anyone here on DC use it? Or ever use it?

There was a time when Agent dominated the Usenet landscape, but these days it's regarded more as a fringe player.

-Innuendo (November 24, 2009, 09:04 AM)

I use Agent.  Actually, i should say I used to use Agent.  I don't deal with usenet much anymore.  Web forums have taken over so much the last few years, it makes the usenet groups almost useless to me.  But I used to use Agent all the time.  I still keep up with the development somewhat because I just like software.

One interesting thing I've noticed:  even though other software for newsgroups have become more popular (it seems like, I'm not sure), it's usually because of their binary downloading features, NOT the discussion/thread/reading features.  So for actually reading the discussions taking place over usenet, I still think Agent is king.  For downloading, not so much.  Other programs seem to be geared towards making an interface that will feel like a p2p file-sharing network.  These are probably better for downloading files or even searching for files.  Most (newsleecher, newsbin pro) even offer services that index the binary groups so you can search and download the files like Napster used to.

But, again, for reading discussions Agent still seems to be the program to use.  I actually preferred it to downloading binaries also.  There was an subtle simplicity or elegance to it.  But I never really tried the search and find programs.

Another thing about Agent, they sure seem to spend a lot of their efforts on their email component.  I always wondered how many people actually use Agent for their email client.  And why?  There are much better email clients out there.  I never got that.

4294

Living Room / Re: You have a computer backup plan.. but does it work?

« Last post by superboyac on November 24, 2009, 10:30 AM »

I have used Windows Home Server as my backup/fileserver solution since its inception (I was part of the beta test group).  I can't say enough good things about it.  I don't use a pre-built box; I bought the software and built a box specifically for it.

-skwire (November 24, 2009, 10:19 AM)

Looks interesting, i didn't know about it.  I'll have to check it out!

4295

General Software Discussion / Re: Forte Agent reaches 6.0, now with "hide quoted text"

« Last post by superboyac on November 23, 2009, 07:07 PM »

I asked them to add a checkbox option so that the autoformat feature in microed will allow one carriage return to be interpreted as a new line.  They refused.  Adamantly.  I don't quite understand why.

-superboyac (November 23, 2009, 06:07 PM)

It's only a small exaggeration to say **everyone** asked them to change that behavior of the editor. it's hopeless.

-tranglos (November 23, 2009, 06:26 PM)

Really?  I didn't realize that.  When I asked and made a fuss about it, it seemed like I was the only one who had issues with it and everyone else was happy with it.  Why are they so stubborn about it?  The weird thing is that many times, I have said "screw it, I'll just use the 'plain windows editor' option".  But whenever I do, it seems like a little feature or two doesn't work quite as well as in Microed, so i go back to microed, and get frustrated by other things.  It's like a vicious cycle.

4296

General Software Discussion / Re: Forte Agent reaches 6.0, now with "hide quoted text"

« Last post by superboyac on November 23, 2009, 06:07 PM »

I don't think tranglos was wishing for newsreader support, but rather the new "hide quoting" feature that Agent just added.

-Innuendo (November 23, 2009, 11:40 AM)

Ah!  i see.  Sorry, my bad.  Still, i think it will take them forever and a day to add something that significant (yes, I'm being sarcastic).

I asked them to add a checkbox option so that the autoformat feature in microed will allow one carriage return to be interpreted as a new line.  They refused.  Adamantly.  I don't quite understand why.

4297

Developer's Corner / Re: Apple's App Store Mistake

« Last post by superboyac on November 23, 2009, 05:59 PM »

Apple's strengths:

1: Industrial design, especially aesthetically.
2: Aesthetics and certain experiential aspects of User Interface design (note: I do *not* think they are universally great at UI design, but they do some things very well, and they get the visual aspect for sure; this ties into #1 as well as #3).
3: Marketing, particularly "lifestyle marketing".

Those 3 things combine to allow them to succeed at the rest of the things they do, which then simply further cements their profits and success. E.g. Sony was unable to create the kind of format lock-in they created with iPod and Apple because A: they did not have the entire "ecosystem" (no iTunes), and B: they did not just push one format, they mandated it, whereas Apple's approach is "our way is the right way, but we're compatible with *input* from others" (read: mp3 support on iPod, PC file cross-compatibility, but *not* allowing iPod sync with other apps besides iTunes, or allowing iTunes to sync with other hardware). With this "strict but 'open'" approach, they are able to assimilate users on other platforms easily and comfortably, while making it difficult or impossible to go the other direction if you ever want to. All roads lead to Apple in other words. It's all primarily driven by their "underdog" status and the perception of "cool", which is supported heavily by their visual design.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (November 23, 2009, 03:14 PM)

Yes, exactly.  You said it better than I could.  Sony was being stubborn and turned people off.  Apple was inviting and pleasant.  Again, this is all appearances, they were both after the same thing.  But, that's the genius of Apple.  it really is like the commercial.  people saw the ipod and thought how cool and how it was easy to use.  To this day, most users have no idea that by default all their imported cd's get encoded into the protected aac format that itunes uses.  Or that imported existing mp3's get protected (maybe, I'm not positive about that one).  But Sony made a big enough stink about stuff like that where the user wouldn't even try using the device, even if they really couldn't care less about if their imported music was protected or not.  Just the way Sony went about it was a turn off.  Apple was very inviting about it all.  Like the sweet song of the siren.

4298

General Software Discussion / Re: Forte Agent reaches 6.0, now with "hide quoted text"

« Last post by superboyac on November 22, 2009, 10:53 PM »

Now, since I no longer use Agent for email, I wonder how much longer it'll take Ritlabs to implement the same in TheBat! I've been asking them, too, for just about as long.

-tranglos (November 22, 2009, 06:36 PM)

Good luck...Ritlabs only adds extremely subtle and minor features as far as I've seen.  For them to add newsreader support like that, well, that would be the most significant thing they've done in  several years.  Don't get me wrong, I love the Bat, but they never ever add any useful features to the program.

4299

General Software Discussion / Re: Has anyone discovered any cool Windows 7 third-party utilities?

« Last post by superboyac on November 22, 2009, 10:21 PM »

40hz <--- da man!

4300

Developer's Corner / Re: Apple's App Store Mistake

« Last post by superboyac on November 22, 2009, 10:19 PM »

Really ironic, seeing what iTunes does to files.

-rgdot (November 22, 2009, 11:18 AM)

Apple & iTunes had their proprietary format, but at least you could load your MP3s onto your iPod. Sony's early devices only handled their proprietary format. If you wanted to listen to your MP3s on their devices you had to use their program to convert your files to their proprietary format first.

We see how well that worked out for them.

-Innuendo (November 22, 2009, 08:55 PM)

Exactly.  They were stubborn about that for almost a full decade.  I've pointed out several times how it's unheard of for a company to have a multi-year head start on a technological innovation and not do anything successful with it.  Then apple came along and stole the market in a matter of months.  Like a german blitzkrieg.