Recent Posts

4326

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: (10+2)*5 Timer

« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2007, 09:56 PM »

You are more than welcome. 

4327

Developer's Corner / Re: Error messages everyone can understand

« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2007, 09:27 PM »

That's not an animation. That is a live feed from the webcam in her bathroom.

-tinjaw (October 10, 2007, 01:05 PM)

  The state inspector said it was a new electrical outlet they were installing...not a web cam!

4328

Developer's Corner / Install multiple versions of IE on your PC

« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2007, 08:59 PM »

Ever wanted to test your website in various versions of Internet Explorer?

It is possible to run Internet Explorer in standalone mode without having to over-write previous versions thanks to Joe Maddalone who came up with a way of achieving that in November 2003. Basically, Internet Explorer is run by exploiting a known workaround to DLL hell - which was introduced in Windows 2000 and later versions - called DLL redirection.

There is an installer available that will install IE3 IE4.01 IE5 IE5.5 and IE6 and allow you to run them on the same machine at the same time.

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

4329

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Total Text Container (PIM)

« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2007, 02:57 PM »

Its a freeware application. Thats all there is to it

-mtirnanic (October 10, 2007, 02:55 PM)

Sourceforge is for open source projects...meaning you have to have an open source license and provide the sourcecode for the application. It is part of the agreement all developers have with Sourceforge that allows them to have their projects to be hosted there for free.

4330

Developer's Corner / Error messages everyone can understand

« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2007, 12:37 PM »

This was sent to me by hollowlife1987:

I have suggested mouser add this one to Dr Windows.

then hamradio found the page with it and even more:
http://officespam.ch...archives/039796.html

4331

Developer's Corner / Re: Code Snippet Storage/Library/Catalog/Organizer/GinzuSwissArmyKnife

« Last post by app103 on October 10, 2007, 12:52 AM »

My huge quest for such a tool was how I found DC. I ended up following a link from Google to the famous note taking discussion.

I never did find exactly what I wanted, but Developer's Tips & Tricks is about as close as I have come.

I believe it is portable and can be run from a usb thumbdrive. He has both an installer version and a .zip version available.

What I like about DTT is that it doesn't store the snippets in an actual database, and it creates files within its folders with the same directory structure as in the application, with the proper file extension for the particular language of each snippet.

This makes it easy to manage your collection either manually or through the application's GUI, and I can even share the files with others quite easily from my web server. I also don't have to worry about a corrupted database destroying my entire collection. And I can copy a code file easily and drop it into a project's folder for use.

It is donationware, the author is FSL, he is a DC member, and donating does have its perks. He gives you access to the privileged users area of his site where you can download versions of any of his applications with some extra features added. (his way of thanking you) You also get to beta test new stuff before he releases it to the rest of the world.

The big bonuses you get with DTT when you become a privileged user is the ability to search, code folding for some of the languages it supports, some export options (like HTML, rtf), and an extra hotkey to restore the application from the tray.

This application has evolved quite a bit in the last year and keeps getting better & better. I have a feeling I may never find exactly what I am looking for (whatever that is) but if I wait a little longer FSL may surprise me and turn DTT into it and I can finally stop looking.

4332

General Software Discussion / Re: Replace Windows XP's Icons

« Last post by app103 on October 09, 2007, 08:35 PM »

I have always used Microangelo to change mine. It comes with a nice set of icon libraries and you can use just about any icon library or .ico file with it. (or make your own with it)

Microangelo Toolset 6 comes with Microangelo On Display, for free.

4333

Developer's Corner / Ponder This

« Last post by app103 on October 09, 2007, 07:42 PM »

You are cordially invited to match wits with some of the best minds in IBM Research.

Seems some of us can't see a problem without wanting to take a crack at solving it. Does that sound like you? Good. Forge ahead and ponder this month's problem. We'll post a new one every month, and allow two to three weeks for you to submit solutions (we may even publish submitted answers, especially if they're correct). We won't reply individually to submitted solutions but every few days we will update a list of people who answered correctly. Towards the end of the month, we'll post the answer.

October 2007 Challenge:

There are 5 platonic solids, the tetrahedron (4 vertices, 4 triangular faces, 6 edges), the cube (8 vertices, 6 square faces, 12 edges), the octahedron (6 vertices, 8 triangular faces, 12 edges), the dodecahedron (20 vertices, 12 pentagonal faces, 30 edges) and the icosahedron (12 vertices, 20 triangular faces, 30 edges). Consider open models of these solids with wire edges connecting the vertices. Suppose each wire has unit resistance. For each case find the total resistance between a pair of adjacent vertices. Express each answer as a rational number.

Hint: The answers can be found by brute force but there is a way to use symmetry.

http://www.research.ibm.com/ponder/

^{I can't even begin to understand the problems, nevermind solve them.}

4334

General Software Discussion / Re: Question: Quickest way to receive spam?

« Last post by app103 on October 09, 2007, 03:27 PM »

Go to this 2 message boards/guestbooks and post a request for sites in English where you can buy the band's (Aria) albums, and make sure you put your email address in the body of the post so it is easily seen:

http://narod.yandex....stbook/?owner=329284
http://www.narod.ru/...guestbook/message.gb

You will start getting tons of Russian spam that will never stop. 

4335

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: (10+2)*5 Timer

« Last post by app103 on October 09, 2007, 10:58 AM »

About the extra 23 minutes...

Is that on every run that it is adding an extra 23 minutes each time? or did it just start on the first run with 23 minutes on it already?

If you could, please pass on the link to my contact page and tell them to get in touch with me directly so I can get all info needed about these problems:

http://appsapps.info/contact.php

4336

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: (10+2)*5 Timer

« Last post by app103 on October 08, 2007, 12:50 PM »

Wouldn't that be somehow related to vista? It's not the first time i've seen trouble with settings not being saved/loaded with vista, IIRC.

-jgpaiva (October 08, 2007, 09:22 AM)

I don't know...the user didn't specify what version of Windows, and as far as I know, that Vista problem only occurs when the settings are saved to a file in the application's folder, which my program doesn't do. All settings are saved to the registry, under current user.

If it is a Vista issue, I don't think I can fix it. I wouldn't begin to know how, and I couldn't test it because I don't have vista.

This is why I don't officially support Vista in anything I write...I can't.

This is the first report of a problem like this since I released it over a year ago.

About the only thing I can suggest is to uncheck the box on the prompt that says "Always ask before opening this file" before clicking the 'run' button.

I don't know if that will make a difference or not.

4337

Living Room / Re: How to stop worrying

« Last post by app103 on October 05, 2007, 10:39 PM »

The only way I am going to stop worrying (or worry less) is if other people do it for me...or should I say, do their own fair share of worrying that they are supposed to be doing, so I don't have to do it for them.

4338

Living Room / Re: Whats on your desktop?

« Last post by app103 on October 05, 2007, 09:08 PM »

How do you remember what all those icons are?

-Carol Haynes (October 04, 2007, 07:36 AM)

I might not remember what something is called, or maybe even what the icon looks like, but if I can remember what it does I can easily find it.

Each row you see is for a specific type of software. Frequently used ones are on the line that shows, with the ones I use the most usually on the ends to make it easier to find them.

So, on my text tools row, since notepad2 is the one I use most, it's first....and Windows Live Writer is last, since I use that a lot too. The ones I don't use that often are on the second row which you don't see unless I either pull it down to expand it or click the little bar to see the rest on a menu.

And the top bar on the right side has ALWAYS been devoted to drive shortcuts, with the icons hinting at what is stored on them.

I get confused enough with the ones in my system tray (currently 31 - yes I know I should get rid of about 25 of them)!

-Carol Haynes (October 04, 2007, 07:36 AM)

I actually have a txt file with a list of all the tray icons that are supposed to be there (45), in order, just so I can tell if any are missing. 

4339

General Software Discussion / Re: registration benefits

« Last post by app103 on October 05, 2007, 08:41 PM »

I used to have a Storm Imagewave scanner. The company that made it went out of business.

The prob I had with the scanner was that it forced registration on you when you installed the drivers for the scanner...every single time...and you had to have a dialup modem to do it because it would want to dial out to some 800 number....and there was no way to opt out. (and the phone number didn't exist any more) 

The only other time I have bothered to register something was some software of my daughter's for doing makeovers. Even though you bought and paid for the software on CD (at a price of almost $100 to cover cost of software + crappy digital camera), they made you register it to get a code to unlock all the features. They were also kind enough to install some spyware on your pc along with the software.

Thankfully, neither of these products are available any more.

4340

Living Room / Re: DC Unofficial Meeting #5 Took Place - Veign and Mouser meet

« Last post by app103 on October 05, 2007, 01:48 PM »

i just grew mine to impress chris - i plan on shaving it off today now that he is gone 

-mouser (October 05, 2007, 10:16 AM)

You should grow it till spring, at least. It will keep you warm all winter and you'll save money on razors. 

4341

Living Room / Re: Whats on your desktop?

« Last post by app103 on October 04, 2007, 07:01 AM »

nice desktop all right App
maybe you should autohide your todo list as well though !!
(for peace of mind of course)

do those widgets come looking that good or is that a theme -
couldnt be your win theme cause youre using windows classic 

so where does one get such nice clocks & temperature readings etc 
I mean i know they're yahoo but there's thousands of them out there....
(i searched for cpu clock but couldnt see those ones)

-tomos (October 04, 2007, 01:18 AM)

That are naturally that good looking. (although I may have tweaked color, size, transparency a bit)

On the left, from top to bottom:

iStat CPU
iStat Memory
(they have other similar style widgets too, and some for Vista sidebar)

SpeedFan Widget needs SpeedFan installed (I have the older v5, I like the look much better than v6)
Yahoo Notepad

On the right:
Yahoo Calendar
Werewolf Monitor
Yahoo Day Planner

WAH - they are SERIOUSLY SCARY toolbars - no wonder you hide them!

-Carol Haynes (October 04, 2007, 03:53 AM)

While other people like things like FARR and Launchy, I prefer doing it this way.

I have had a giant hidden taskbar on the right side of my screen for as long as I have used Windows. I inherited my first pc set up that way and would go insane if it were any other way. It is the first change I make when installing a fresh copy of Windows on a PC.

I don't have a pic of the old P1 with the way it looked with Win98. This is the oldest I have, from about 2002 on my P3 with WinME:


This is from a series of screenshots I made with various toolbars expanded, so in case I had to reinstall the OS I could restore the exact position of every icon. (yup, I am a digital packrat that saves everything, including backups from a dead pc I don't even have any more)

4342

Living Room / Re: Whats on your desktop?

« Last post by app103 on October 04, 2007, 12:38 AM »

Updated desktop (there have been some major changes)

I now have 2 giant autohiding toolbars:



and with them hidden, you get to see the wallpaper my talented photographer daughter created....and my yahoo widgets (and the 'todo list of doom' with things that never get done)

4343

Living Room / Re: Online Privacy Policy Generator

« Last post by app103 on October 02, 2007, 03:55 PM »

I just looked around and did find this EULA generator:

http://www.xs.fi/services/

Just enter a company name and product name and click the button to download a text file with them inserted into the proper places.

Quick & easy, but I am not sure if the EULA is all that great or if you would like using it without editing it a lot to suit your needs.

4344

Living Room / Re: Online Privacy Policy Generator

« Last post by app103 on October 02, 2007, 03:16 PM »

Anyone know of an online EULA generator?

-Ralf Maximus (October 02, 2007, 02:28 PM)

You might like to keep your eyes on the "Fair" End User License Agreement (FEULA). It's in beta right now, and they are still working the kinks out of it, but it looks pretty promising. (more info here)

Any new updated versions will appear here along with links to any other EULA related posts from that blog.

4345

Developer's Corner / Re: Software Copy Protection Questions

« Last post by app103 on October 02, 2007, 08:48 AM »

Like I said originally, how much time & energy do you want to devote to making a free puzzle game for crackers.


Tinjaw's question was a 2 part one:

1. How to protect his app from crackers that will try to beat the licensing of his game.
2. How to protect the images in the game.

To both of them, it's futile. You can do all kinds of things and waste a lot of time, money, and energy..and still it won't be enough.

So far most of the responses to tinjaw's post have been related to #1 and not really addressing the issue of #2. My answer was for #2 and not really addressing #1.

Honest people don't use cracks, they pay for games.

And those that use cracks will not buy your game any way, so no money is lost there.

And those that crack the games do it for fun. You provide them with a free puzzle game no matter what you do. And they will be going after beating the licensing...not likely trying to extract the images.

And my comment about detecting tools was referring to tools ordinary users would use to make screen captures of the game in order to get the images...not to crackers cracking the game itself to bypass licensing. I am sorry if I didn't make that clear enough.

Why detect if the game is running in vmware? Well the screen capture tools might not be installed on the virtual machine, but still exist and are running outside the vm.

But you know what? You still can't stop the screen shots even if you do that. What about a user simply using the print screen key and pasting into paint? Are you going to disable that key while the game is running? What about if a user remaps the key to another? Are you going to disable all keys on the keyboard to prevent that too?

What you need to do is keep the comic book company happy with the amount of protection you use and not annoy honest people while preventing them from doing stupid things.

Forget about crackers...they aren't the real issue. They will crack your game no matter what and you can't stop them.

If shutting down the game when a screen capture utility is detected to keep ordinary users from getting the images is going too far, then you don't do that.

But remember what I said when the comic book company starts screaming about their images all over the web. You would do better to go with some reasonable protection and spend the extra time preparing a speech to give the comic book company when they get upset that the protection of their images has failed.

4346

Developer's Corner / Re: Programming 101 Lesson: Don't Purge User Data

« Last post by app103 on October 02, 2007, 01:28 AM »

Purging old data...and banks...

You can almost count on it that if he had defaulted on his account and it wasn't in good standing, that his info wouldn't have been lost. They would never have purged the data related to THAT kind of closed/inactive account. They would keep that forever.

4347

Developer's Corner / Re: Software Copy Protection Questions

« Last post by app103 on October 02, 2007, 01:17 AM »

i might suggest a more middle of the road approach.  find a suitable protection that doesn't inconvenience the user, and don't expect miracles from it.

-mouser (September 23, 2007, 07:00 AM)

I have to agree with mouser on this.

You have to decide what line of business you are in:
1. Are you making games to sell to honest people?
2. Are you making free puzzle games for crackers?

You will always be doing #2, no matter what protection you use.

How much time & money do you want to invest in providing free puzzle games for crackers? How much fun do you want them to have? They will solve any puzzle game you throw at them, eventually.

Go with enough protection to keep honest people honest and enough protection to keep the comic book company satisfied that you have made a reasonable effort to protect their property.

If the comic book company wants something stronger and more expensive, maybe you should suggest they buy you a license for the protection you'll be using. I don't think you would have a problem using any solution they told you to use, as long as they were paying for it. And when they see the cost, they might see things your way with the more reasonable priced solution.

I'm afraid mouser is right.

Okay, first off: use a "wad"/"pack"/"bigfile" approach, instead of individual files... (ie., like ID software have been doing since doom and earlier). This will keep regular users from messing around, but will be "no match for batman". You can add encryption on top of that to prevent hexeditor-capable users from identifying file signatures, but obviously this won't stop reverse engineers.

-f0dder (September 23, 2007, 07:06 AM)

That's a good approach. It keeps the files from being easily accessed by the common user.

Another thing you can do is what some web designers & artists do with their images on the web...chop them up in pieces and fit them together in the game to appear as a single image.

If someone manages to get the images out of whatever way you packed them, they will not be all that usable without having a ton of fun fitting them back together in photoshop, which would be time consuming work. It would be faster and easier to just scan the comic books for the images if they want them that bad.

But keep in mind that there are tools available to make screenshots of games, so they might not need to do much work to get what they want any way. And there really isn't much you can do to stop that kind of copying.

About the only thing you can do is get a list of the tools they would be using, and try to detect them and shut down the game if any are detected running. (and don't forget to detect if the game is running on an OS in something like VMware)

4348

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for an E-Mail Client which can be run on an USB Stick

« Last post by app103 on September 30, 2007, 05:50 PM »

if you need a POP email client, and a ton more, try the one included with Floppy Office. (it's nPOPuk)

NPopUK  is a full featured email client (a far improved version of the brilliant nPOP itself), which as it is, can almost replace MS Outlook Express. It supports authentication, address book, multiple POP accounts and much more!

Floppy office is a collection of small portable utilities perfect for a USB stick, and the whole collection is actually small enough to fit on a single floppy. There are at least 15 applications in it:

KPad (kPad.zip) - A simple MDI Rich Text editor
(replaces Wordpad)

NPop (npop102win32_eng.zip) - A complete POP3 email client
(almost replaces Outlook Express)

Ted (tnp451re_uni.zip) - An unbelievably full featured notepad replacement which
supports unicode.(completely replaces notepad, and then some)

EVE (eve.zip)- A vector editor graphics program which can serve as a flow chart tool
(replaces MS Paint, even though Paint is a bitmap editor...)

iFtp (iftp-win32-v198.zip)- A simple FTP client
(replaces WSFTP)

110k Zipper (100ziper.exe) - A small zip/unzip utility
(almost replaces Winzip)

PDF Producer (PDFproducerExe.zip) - A simple text-PDF conversion application
(almost replaces PDF printer driver)

Spread32 (spread32.zip) -  A full-featured spreasheet program.
Version 19991112 Beta is the last free one. (almost replaces MS Excel)

MemPad (mempad.zip) - keeps little tree sytle notes with a handy index.
(handy rudimentary outliner)

RenameFiles (renamefiles_v2.42_us.zip) - a handy program for
renaming multiple files in a single step

Plus:

dsCrypt (dscrypt.exe) - An AES/Rijndael file encryption software

X-Pass (xpass.zip) - X-Pass reveals all system password fields

dsDEL (dsdel.exe) - dsDEL is a secure file deletion utility

TinyWeb Server (tinyweb.zip) - Complete web server, WWW supports MIME file typing, CGI, common log format, and multi-hosting

TinyBox (tinybox.zip) - A graphical user interface for TinyWeb Server!

-Floppy Office v3.4  from http://www.xtort.net

There is a newer version 3.9 available but I haven't downloaded it yet.

Screenshot:

4349

Living Room / Re: how do you represent 'time' in your head?

« Last post by app103 on September 28, 2007, 09:52 PM »

This probably wouldn't help you design a diagram at all, and I am not sure if this is what you meant, but this is how I see it...and some of it is probably pretty weird...

Thinking of hours, minutes, seconds...I am kind of classic, with an old analog style clock in my head that runs on 12hr time. The color changes between white (midnight - noon) & black (noon-midnight). A day is 2 circles that overlap each other.

Weeks are pretty much a straight line, like a typical wall calendar...as are months. When I think of a day in relation to a week or a month, they are pretty much like marking it on a calendar page. They are no longer circles.

A year is circular, moving counter-clockwise, with January at the top, and August at the bottom. (Yes, I know that this is a bit disproportionate but that's how I see it)

The progression of years...

It is a line...moving from left (past) to right (present/future). The time of my birth is at the center, straight in front of me (or slightly to the left of that point). Putting my arms straight out in front of me, the present is in line with my right hand...the future, transparent and off beyond my right hand. The year 1900 sits at my left hand. Everything before that is beyond my left hand.

Each year is a disk on that line, with them overlapping in blocks to represent decades, or centuries, depending on what I am thinking about.

Sometimes I perceive this with color, if it helps to keep things in perspective and separate blocks of time from others.

Visualizing actual events (either from memory or just imagination of the past from before my life)...Everything from 1970 to present is in color...things between 1900 - 1970 are in black & white. Going back in time, everything from about the middle ages to 1900 are in sepia tones...anything before that is in color again. The future is translucent and ghosty.

Do the images in my head move, like video? Only things during my lifetime...everything else is like old photos or paintings.

4350

Official Announcements / Re: Brand new web-based live text chat channel interface -- try it!

« Last post by app103 on September 28, 2007, 10:19 AM »

I know what the problem is...

Adding 'dc' to the beginning of names creates the possibility of a name beginning with 'dcc' which efnet will not allow because they think it is a 'dcc bot' (file server bot used for distribution of warez & crap)

Maybe if your script can detect when someone enters a name beginning with 'C', and it could insert an underscore before it to separate it from the 'dc' prefix...that could fix the problem.