Recent Posts

4876

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: NANY 2014 Release: Reference Overlay Tool

« Last post by wraith808 on March 29, 2014, 10:22 AM »

I tried "Custom Desktop Logo" and in some ways it was even better (absolute min footprint), however it is just to laborious to move the image around. Wraith808's concept is that you move and resize the image to minimize interference with the underlying app. Wraith808,  I hope that you haven't given up on this app, love to see a version 2.

-towlerg (March 29, 2014, 09:34 AM)

No, just been working on projects, so haven't been able to get an update out.  I'll try to do that as soon as possible!  Thanks for the encouragement!

4877

General Software Discussion / Re: Help please! - Unable to install MS SQL Express 2012 on laptop.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 28, 2014, 10:47 AM »

Can you post your computer properties screen?  i.e. ControlPanel > All Control Panel Items > System?

4878

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft: All your data are belong to us.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 27, 2014, 04:32 PM »

Last week, it was revealed that Microsoft had examined the Hotmail/Outlook.com emails of a blogger, who was NOT a Microsoft employee, in order to find who had leaked confidential information to that person.

It seems this is legal because, under Microsoft’s terms of use, the company has the right to examine any user’s data for any reason they see fit.

This is very different from data mining user data to sell advertising, and it makes me wonder why anyone in their right mind would consider using Office 365 for any reason at all.

-xtabber (March 27, 2014, 03:59 PM)

Unless you're using your own server, you're deluding yourself if you think that unencrypted e-mail isn't subject to the same things.  Even if you *are*, you're still subject to it from anyone that you've sent it to.

E-mail is an inherently insecure medium.  And any expectations of privacy are just that- expectations that the services go along with... until it's not expedient to do so.

4879

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft releases DOS and Word for Windows source code

« Last post by wraith808 on March 27, 2014, 04:29 PM »

Sorry for sounding cynical. But I really do think the only reason this code is being released is to establish "primacy" and set the stage for charging opponents with "knowing infringement" in future legal battles.

-40hz (March 27, 2014, 02:34 PM)

But those terms are no different from the others released by Apple, APL, MacPaint/Quickdraw, and Photoshop.

It seems from the point of history, its a different use than might be thought, but this is nothing new.

The purpose of the Computer History Museum in its own words:

The mission of the Computer History Museum is to preserve and present for posterity the artifacts and stories of the Information Age.

It seems that this is for learning from the past, rather than use.  Which I think is useful for that purpose.

4880

Activation/License/Language Help / Re: wrong license key message

« Last post by wraith808 on March 27, 2014, 01:43 PM »

I think the question from Josh though was more targeted than that- some people come to DC complaining about license keys not working for non-DC programs. 

4881

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft releases DOS and Word for Windows source code

« Last post by wraith808 on March 27, 2014, 01:42 PM »

Why is it an empty gesture?

4882

General Software Discussion / Re: Help please! - Unable to install MS SQL Express 2012 on laptop.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 26, 2014, 09:04 PM »

I did a mini trial of it a while back... the developer replied and it apparently wasn't what I was looking for at the time.

As far as SQL Server Express, a couple of links that might be of help.

First, I'd download it from here or here.

Not sure if that's different from where you d/l'd the installation from, but that page doesn't look like one I've seen.

And a tutorial site that goes through the installation is here: http://www.soheib.co...stallation-tutorial/

4883

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Word under attack. Don't open RTF files!

« Last post by wraith808 on March 25, 2014, 08:50 PM »

4884

Non-Windows Software / Re: GoG planning support for Linux starting FALL 2014

« Last post by wraith808 on March 24, 2014, 12:49 PM »

Gaming stuff might get more notice if posted in the gaming forum.  Or, then again... maybe not?

4885

Circle Dock / Re: Windows 7's Taskbar....Err.....Circle Dock for the DC Programming Contest

« Last post by wraith808 on March 24, 2014, 11:46 AM »

Winstep Nexus.

-David.P (March 24, 2014, 08:25 AM)

Ah... I get my confusion.  They have a free and a paid version (never used anything but the paid version).

Just out of curiosity, what unique feature(s) does CircleDock bring to the mix beyond those of any other dock-type launcher?

-40hz (March 24, 2014, 10:06 AM)

I think it's the use of the middle mouse button and the integration with the layout.  It's also very accessibility friendly, which a lot of other docks are not.

But for the middle mouse button- in the default launch, you bring up the menu with the middle mouse button- the item to activate appears under your mouse cursor.  Then you can roll the mouse wheel to move the menu, rather than having to traverse your mouse and keep up a menu to get to an item.  If you come to a sub menu, the menu spirals out, and you do the same thing rather than trying to navigate another menu structure.  It's more centered around actions, not movement, to launch your items.

The Idea Behind Circle Dock

The idea behind Circle Dock is that the dock should appear where your mouse is instead of you having to move your mouse to the dock like with other programs. This is accomplished by making the dock a circular or spiral shape so that it can be placed anywhere, even near the edge of the screen. The offscreen portions of the dock are easily reached by just scrolling with your mouse wheel or arrow keys.

A user defined hotkey combination is used to make the dock appear and disappear. By default, this combination is CTRL-WINDOWS KEY. You can change it in the settings area of the program.

If you have a mouse with extra buttons or you want to make one of your mouse buttons activate the dock, I recommend you use the program from http://www.highrez.c...useButtonControl.htm and use it to remap your mouse buttons. This makes it very convenient to toggle Circle Dock.

4886

Circle Dock / Re: Windows 7's Taskbar....Err.....Circle Dock for the DC Programming Contest

« Last post by wraith808 on March 24, 2014, 07:03 AM »

Winstep Nexus?  Or some other Nexus?

4887

General Software Discussion / Re: Nimblebox - Evernote plus Twitter client

« Last post by wraith808 on March 23, 2014, 02:45 PM »

It looks cool... but is the project already dead?

http://nimblebox.me/discussion/

http://nimblebox.me/category/blog/

The last time anything was posted was in July 2013, and people were having authentication problems, which wasn't announced as fixed.

4888

Living Room / Re: Against TED talks

« Last post by wraith808 on March 21, 2014, 11:28 AM »

at the risk of poking the snake with a stick, still seems like guilt by association to me.

as far as I can see all you've managed to do so far is paint TED black with someone elses deeds.

I'm not defending any of the parties here, I'm pretty sure we all know that many of the big commercial entities are far from paragons, but I've yet to hear anything that indicates that TED does anything other than provide a forum.

Is there an agenda there?  I have no idea, and given the breadth and depth of both subjects and presenters I'm guessing it would pretty hard to see anyway.

meh...

-Target (March 21, 2014, 03:01 AM)

I'm not even going down the guilt by association bit- there's more than enough questions about TED just from looking at the number of sponsors and cost.

4889

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2014, 05:16 PM »

Yes... I didn't think there was any bait and switch about access them anywhere.  From my experiences with my tablet, MS cloud file system caches things, and you can access them offline, and I was thinking that was going to be the case (though I wasn't sure enough to say so).

The problem is that outside of their cloud file system, you have no control over the file, i.e. if you want to save it to the root of your c drive, you can't.  Or if you want to access a notebook that was created by the non-cloud version, you can't.  And I'm not sure if you actually go and look in your sky/one drive, you'll see it there... from my experience with the truly cloud version of OneNote, you see a link instead of the actual file- not sure if this new version does the same thing.

Your data is not your own in a real sense.

4890

General Software Discussion / Re: What the Heck is Happening to Windows? Article on Windows 8 Disaster

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2014, 04:49 PM »

The whole *world* would be happier.  Especially because that would mean MS was changing.  But...

4891

General Software Discussion / Re: What the Heck is Happening to Windows? Article on Windows 8 Disaster

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2014, 12:29 PM »

Oh totally... I'm not saying that there aren't good people at MS.  And I think getting rid of the stack ranking was one of the things that showed that.  But... it's too top heavy in the end, when it comes to development.  At least it seems that way from the outside looking in.  And shite, not cream, rises to the top in those particular scenarios.

4892

General Software Discussion / Re: What the Heck is Happening to Windows? Article on Windows 8 Disaster

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2014, 11:50 AM »

IMO Windows needs a total ground up redesign, not unlike what Apple did with OS X.

-Vurbal (March 20, 2014, 09:57 AM)

I don't trust Microsoft to do it well.

4893

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 20, 2014, 09:18 AM »

Well, I'm disgusted by this now, after reading this self-explanatory post in OutlinerSoftware.com:

Outliner Software: OneNote for Mac on the horizon...
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Mar 18, 2014 at 05:36 PM

Ah, I knew there had to be a catch. I’ve been using OneNote 2010 on my Windows PC, which I paid for. I just downloaded the free 2013 edition, which was working just fine until I tried to create a new page in one of the notebooks that I keep on my computer (instead of on SkyDrive), and got a messages saying “Subscribe to Office to continue using this notebook.” From the “Learn more” link:

Anyone can download and use the free version of OneNote. When you subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium for just $9.99 per month, you get the premium version of OneNote, which easily integrates with the other latest Office applications and comes with additional capabilities, including the ability to:

• Create notebooks on your PC. Create notebooks saved to your hard drive (offline) in addition to being saved to your OneDrive. Being able to work with notebooks offline as well as online is great for anyone with a spotty network connection or those who are always on the go.
  
  
• Support your business needs. Your notes are synced to your OneDrive for Business, so you and your teammates can collaborate easily. For added security, you can password-protect your notebooks. And with Office 365 you get the latest Office applications, which means you get a complete note-taking experience, with embedded Excel files and added Outlook tasks, meeting notes, and contacts.
  
  
• Record your notes. Why just write or type your notes when you can video- or audio-record them at the same time? That way you’re sure not to miss any important information. Perfect for students and for those important meetings.
  

Is this the deal breaker? Maybe. I don’t want or need all my work notebooks, which I keep on my PC at the office, floating around on SkyDrive or on my other devices. Indeed, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Steve Z.

-IainB (March 20, 2014, 05:30 AM)

Better late than never. 

4894

General Software Discussion / Re: What the Heck is Happening to Windows? Article on Windows 8 Disaster

« Last post by wraith808 on March 19, 2014, 07:09 PM »

RT is dead because it does not provide any of the advantages of Windows and the interface is simply not as usable as either Android or iOS on either phones or tablets.  With all due respect to johnk for his personal experience, "Tile World" as David Pogue refers to it is a usability disaster.

-xtabber (March 19, 2014, 05:21 PM)

It's not just Johnk... if I weren't a power user, it wouldn't have been bad.  My son loves it.  I know several other people that do also.  It's not a useability nightmare, I think, as much as it is a marketing and PR nightmare.

4895

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 19, 2014, 11:39 AM »

Yes... definitely.  A 1GB download so that you can't save on your machine?


That sounds like a definite 

4896

Living Room / Re: Against TED talks

« Last post by wraith808 on March 19, 2014, 10:43 AM »

The TED Conferences are a lot like that. Much, in fact, like a major film festival: there's an "in" group - and there's everyone else who's also attending. That doesn't detract from the films being shown - just what private parties you'll be invited to afterwards. If that's the sort of thing that offends you, then you're better off staying home. Because that's pretty much how the world works about 90% of the time. And TED is no different.

-40hz (March 19, 2014, 12:06 AM)

Oh, I totally agree.  It's just that though it's obvious to *you* and to *others* that they aren't fully altruistic and philanthropic, they present themselves as that way.  And that's one of the few things that I totally and utterly despise.

4897

General Software Discussion / Re: What the Heck is Happening to Windows? Article on Windows 8 Disaster

« Last post by wraith808 on March 19, 2014, 10:41 AM »

I can't help but think Windows-RT will eventually go the way of Windows CE (now CE was one cool and fast little OS!) and Surface the way of Zune.

-40hz (March 19, 2014, 12:36 AM)

Don't forget the Windows Tablet PC.  That's where I got bitten.

4898

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 19, 2014, 10:34 AM »

Ah, I knew there had to be a catch. I’ve been using OneNote 2010 on my Windows PC, which I paid for. I just downloaded the free 2013 edition, which was working just fine until I tried to create a new page in one of the notebooks that I keep on my computer (instead of on SkyDrive), and got a messages saying “Subscribe to Office to continue using this notebook.” From the “Learn more” link:

Anyone can download and use the free version of OneNote. When you subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium for just $9.99 per month, you get the premium version of OneNote, which easily integrates with the other latest Office applications and comes with additional capabilities, including the ability to:
Create notebooks on your PC. Create notebooks saved to your hard drive (offline) in addition to being saved to your OneDrive. Being able to work with notebooks offline as well as online is great for anyone with a spotty network connection or those who are always on the go.
Support your business needs. Your notes are synced to your OneDrive for Business, so you and your teammates can collaborate easily. For added security, you can password-protect your notebooks. And with Office 365 you get the latest Office applications, which means you get a complete note-taking experience, with embedded Excel files and added Outlook tasks, meeting notes, and contacts.
Record your notes. Why just write or type your notes when you can video- or audio-record them at the same time? That way you’re sure not to miss any important information. Perfect for students and for those important meetings.

4899

Living Room / Re: OneNote now on Mac as well, +FREE everywhere, + Cloud service powered.

« Last post by wraith808 on March 19, 2014, 10:30 AM »

Oh... and thanks for the post from the outlinersoftware.com, IainB!  MagicalPad HD is pretty cool and I hadn't heard of it.  The one for the iPhone isn't on the app store, though...

4900

Living Room / Re: Against TED talks

« Last post by wraith808 on March 18, 2014, 09:15 PM »

Ever attend a 2-day trade or industry insider conference? Those aren't cheap either. These things go on convention budgets. Depending on the location, the facilities, and the number of days, it can add up fast. I just spent last Saturday night at a small inn about 300 miles from where I live. Cost for the night = $235. The week before I was in NYC at one of the Hiltons since I couldn't find anything else for the days I needed to be there. Price per night $424, I've also worked in a hotel. Back in the 80s when they hosted conferences where I worked, the conferences were getting an average of $800-1200 a day to attend. A now defunct guitar Workshop I used to attend offered a 5-day program that ran in a resort someplace out west. Cost to attend = $5250 to $6000. The normal price for the very same workshop held at a local boarding school in my state during summer recess = $1200 for the classes plus an additional $800 to stay in a school dorm room with four other people.

TED seems to be on the higher midrange of what these things tend to charge.

-40hz (March 18, 2014, 06:04 PM)

Indeed I have.  But you know the difference?  The other conferences I've attended are for profit.  The ones that I've attended that have been for non-profits and/or for PR haven't been nearly as expensive.  And they have sponsors.  And I did look on the site before, and never got anything other than their initiatives, and the spiel about being a non-profit and that they don't pay their speakers.