Recent Posts

4901

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 — first impressions

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2009, 12:43 AM »

OK - only three days on Windows 7 and already I am turning UAC off.

-J-Mac (December 10, 2009, 11:10 PM)

Wow, you really stuck it out....it lasted all of 60 minutes on my machine.

And it's extremely annoying how things just do not want to work under Win7, whereas they work fine under XP with a minimum of fuss.

eg. I have a G15 keyboard, I run LCDMisc, (Run As Admin), to provide feedback as to what a daemon is doing on another machine on the LAN - it also uses the multimedia keys to control the daemon.  Works fine under XP, push a key the daemon stops, push it again it resumes.

On W7 it just happily ignores the keys, I don't use the default firewall and LCDMisc has full access through Outpost - I'm sure this will turn out to be something really simple under W7, I just have to have the patience and time to work out what but in the meantime it's just really annoying.

4902

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

« Last post by 4wd on December 10, 2009, 07:12 PM »

In Vista and 7 when dragging the player is immediately displayed behind Windows Explorer. This is very annoying when watching tutorial series which consist of many smaller videos, Alt+Tab'ing all the time.

-libeco (December 10, 2009, 06:28 AM)

In MPC-HC, try right-click on the window and choose: View->On Top->While Playing

4903

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

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2009, 04:06 PM »

MPC-HC is very, very nice!  I like it.  I may have found my default portable player.

-superboyac (December 09, 2009, 10:49 AM)

I'm always finding things in it I never noticed before, eg. a couple of days ago I had a DVD that had minor audio/video sync problem, lo-and-behold you can adjust it from the Audio->Options menu.

My PowerDVD loving friend was most impressed

4904

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

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2009, 06:21 AM »

OOh!  It's portable?  I'm going to add it to my USB drive.

-superboyac (December 08, 2009, 08:50 PM)

Being a single executable kind of makes that easy

Just check the box Options->Player->Store settings to .ini file

4905

Living Room / Re: Any old Amiga users among us?

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2009, 05:57 PM »

Tried ooRexx on the PC?

-cranioscopical (December 08, 2009, 04:18 PM)

I have tried various rexx implementations on the PC, I think I settled on regina because it didn't require installation and with nil programs on the PC, (that I use anyway), providing any sort of standardised IPC there seemed little point so I've kind of lost touch with it.

I should have elaborated about the IPC part of it.

4906

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 Family Pack Upgrade

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2009, 05:31 PM »

Does anyone know of where they still have copies of Windows 7 Family Pack Upgrade available (for delivery to US)?

-dluby (December 08, 2009, 06:45 AM)

Australia 

It's just gone on sale here, currently AU$237, which is more than they were flogging it in the USA, (thieving b@st@rds), but it is available - I saw it yesterday.

4907

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

« Last post by 4wd on December 08, 2009, 05:25 PM »

Another vote here for MPC-HC - the only player I use, (in it's portable version).  Single executable, integrated codecs, fully customisable keys/mouse.

It works on W7 and is also available in x64.

4908

Living Room / Re: Any old Amiga users among us?

« Last post by 4wd on December 06, 2009, 05:39 AM »

The other thing I really miss occasionally is being able to activate a window without it coming to the front.

Is it really so hard to implement and make an option in Windows?

4909

General Software Discussion / Re: outlook 2003 adds to the original email

« Last post by 4wd on December 05, 2009, 10:56 PM »

Oh wait, did I forget this

Or did you forget this:

4910

Living Room / Re: Any old Amiga users among us?

« Last post by 4wd on December 05, 2009, 10:51 PM »

My 132MB A3000 + CyberStorm PPC 180/060, (+ Picasso IV, PabloIV, ConciertoIV), still does boot, (faster than my XP machine), but damn, did the Quantum Trailblazer 850MB run hot until the lube in the bearings finally remelt

About the only thing I fire Amiga Forever up for these days is when I really want to do some fast scripting and nothing beats ARexx for just getting the job done.

4911

General Software Discussion / Re: outlook 2003 adds to the original email

« Last post by 4wd on December 05, 2009, 06:06 AM »

Export as Rich Text Format and attach, (or zip and attach), it can be read by almost any word processor even WordPad.

4912

General Software Discussion / Re: outlook 2003 adds to the original email

« Last post by 4wd on December 04, 2009, 06:51 PM »

Wouldn't it be better to send as an attachment?

Even zip it up then attach it?

4913

General Software Discussion / Re: NirLauncher tools package

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2009, 11:42 PM »

You saved that NLP file as a UTF-16 and the NirSoft Launcher can't read it.  Re-save it as UTF-8, remove the package from NSL and re-add it.  Should work then.

-skwire (December 03, 2009, 11:22 PM)

 That'll teach me to pay more attention to the status line in Notepad2  

Thank you muchly skwire  

Now to get rid of the double entries.

EDIT: A fixed one attached.

4914

General Software Discussion / Re: Needful of opinions on graphics cards/drivers ...

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2009, 11:34 PM »

Sorry to be so dumb about this, but if I put a splitter (?) on one of the nVidia heads, will that work?

-barney (December 03, 2009, 10:58 PM)

AFAIK, a single DVI port can only display the same output on all monitors connected to it.

I haven't read through all the previous posts thoroughly but I don't think you've mentioned exactly how the displays are going to be configured, (hit me with a smiley if I'm wrong).

eg. All display the same thing, two the same and one something different or all different.

EDIT: I'm also not sure if by 'splitter' you mean 'adapter', which is what Shades was referring to.

4915

General Software Discussion / Re: Needful of opinions on graphics cards/drivers ...

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2009, 10:38 PM »

The dual-head card I have is an nVidia 7300 GS, and the box is a Gateway GT5064 - don't know the motherboard, offhand.  I had to disable the onboard video when In installed the GeForce card, and I don't know how to re-enable it, or even if that is possible.

-barney (December 03, 2009, 08:34 PM)

The drivers available for that computer suggest it's using Intel integrated graphics on the motherboard.  This basically means it's a case of one or the other, (motherboard or PCIe), but not both.

If it had been an nVidia based board then you may have got away with it.

There are USB->DVI adapters available, (see here), however they all max out at 1600x1200.  But it would give you one more output if it's not necessary for any really gfx intensive output, (eg. Desktop sans Aero).

4916

General Software Discussion / Re: NirLauncher tools package

« Last post by 4wd on December 03, 2009, 10:00 PM »

OK, so I'm having a little play around with this program, running beta102 and the NirSoft and SysInternals utils all work fine.

So I thought, "I know, I'll add Roadkil's utils as well!"

After duly downloading and extracting them into their own 'roadkil' sub-directory, I then started to edit a roadkil.nlp file based on the sysinternals.nlp - seemed easy enough.

Famous last words.......

It must the old woods and trees thing because no matter how I stare at the roadkil.nlp I just can't see what the problem is.  Whenever I add the package to NirLauncher I get the following:



The package has no name, there are no software group buttons and it just lists whatever package was last displayed  

So, would some kind soul like to stare at the file and tell me where I've gone wrong please.

PS: @kingsmob77: Have you released your DC package yet?  Then I'll have another .nlp file I can stare and not see the problem with mine  

4917

General Software Discussion / Re: looking for an easy way to convert vhs tapes to dvd

« Last post by 4wd on December 01, 2009, 03:13 AM »

so 4wd, what was your choice of software??

-techidave (November 30, 2009, 08:48 PM)

I use iuVCR because I could not find anything in freeware that actually kept audio/video sync.

I tried VirtualDub(Mod), NanDub, VirtualVCR, AvidDemux and quite a few others, (this was 4+ years ago - probably more like 7), including the cutdown versions of software included with the hardware, (which had other limitations).

iuVCR was the only one that just worked with the hardware I had and gave me the features I wanted in an analog capture program - I have not seen the need to use anything else yet since it still just works.

My work flow is:
a) capture with iuVCR, adjusting the colour/saturation/brightness/audio/filters/etc for the hardware from within iuVCR to get the best colour rendition, output format is usually MotionJPEG or HuffYUV video with PCM 48k audio.
b) load the AVI into AviDemux or Vegas 5, depends on how much extra tweaking I want to do to the colour - Vegas 5's filters are a bit more flexible and the results are easier to see.  Also, Vegas 5 has audio filtering which AviDemux doesn't and it's easier than demuxing, tweaking the audio in a separate program and then remuxing.
c) output to HuffYUV + PCM 48k.
d) encode into the final format using AviDemux, StaxRip or something else more suitable to the final format.

As I said, there's nothing wrong with the EasyCAP device for a straight analog to DVD conversion - I just found it far too limiting for what I wanted to do.  If I could have used it to capture, then I would have to try and remove any stray interference from using an internal card.
Who knows maybe they've fixed the drivers so I can capture in the format and using the program that I want - I'll have to spirit it away from the parents and check

4918

General Software Discussion / Re: looking for an easy way to convert vhs tapes to dvd

« Last post by 4wd on November 30, 2009, 08:34 PM »

I bought one of those EasyCAP devices on one of the deal-a-day sites here, (in Aust.), a while ago.

I think it lasted about 1 hour on my machine before I gave up on it.  The drivers they provided, (and updated ones from the manufacturer), would not allow me to capture in full PAL resolution using software that was a lot better than the cut-down rubbish they provided.

I went back to using an old PCI Lifeview Prime34 TV Tuner card's analog input and my choice of software which gave me more control over the input signal and the capture file format.

I gave the EasyCAP to my parents who probably won't mind using the software it comes with.

NOTE: I'm not saying it's a bad device, it just wasn't suitable for me trying to get the best transfer I could within my limited budget, (I already had the TV card).  An external device for digitising the analog signal should produce a better result than a cheap internal card, (less signal interference), but in this case being stuck at 640x480 without resorting to their software was a PITA.

4919

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 — first impressions

« Last post by 4wd on November 30, 2009, 08:12 PM »

Poland is now in the EU so why not simply buy it from another EU country? Under the single market I can't see that Microsoft is legally able to restrict sales within regions of Europe.

-Carol Haynes (November 30, 2009, 06:41 AM)

Legally they can't restrict sales, but everyone does it anyway - from MS to Amazon to Embarcadero (you can only buy Delphi from a local reseller, at really aggravating prices and no added value).

-tranglos (November 30, 2009, 08:06 AM)

I've ordered W7HP Family Pack from the USA via a intermediary here in Australia, (who will post to other countries if you're interested ).  At the time, the Family Pack wasn't available in Australia and now that it is, it'll still work out cheaper to get it from the USA.

4920

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 — first impressions

« Last post by 4wd on November 29, 2009, 06:05 PM »

Right now, it's too expensive to buy another copy on a whim.

-tranglos (November 29, 2009, 04:51 PM)

Would it not have been better to spring for the US$149.99 Family Pack and get W7HP for 3 machines?

As an aside, the greedy b*ggers are selling this in Australia starting tomorrow at AU$249.99, (~US$227).

4921

Living Room / Re: looking for an old science-fiction movie

« Last post by 4wd on November 28, 2009, 09:49 PM »

I've never seen it on DVD though.  It was actually a pretty good flick.  Don't know why it never made it past VHS.

-MilesAhead (November 28, 2009, 07:15 PM)

If you mean Lifeforce, it is available on DVD - see Amazon.

You can see a lot more of Mathilda in the flick Becoming Colette or sometimes titled just Colette.

Sorry, but Biog/Drama is just too real life for my tastes - give me SciFi, Horror or way out Action any time, no matter if it's B-grade or even Z-grade.

If I want something close to real life I can always turn the computer off  

Don't try to work out the intricate plot-line of the vampire' origins as there's so much detail it'll make your head hurt.

-Innuendo (November 28, 2009, 09:51 AM)

In that respect it's pretty much ahead of almost all the recent movies which leave you scratching your head and going, "Wait, now just where did those guys come from and what the hell have they got to do with this?"

4922

Living Room / Re: looking for an old science-fiction movie

« Last post by 4wd on November 28, 2009, 03:17 AM »

Lifeforce is another good SciFi from that era starring Steve Railsback but made more memorable by the appearances of Mathilda May au naturale.

4923

Living Room / Re: looking for an old science-fiction movie

« Last post by 4wd on November 27, 2009, 04:28 PM »

Sounds like Moontrap - one of my favourites since it has my favourite actor in it: Bruce Campbell.

"We don't take no shit from a machine!" - Ray Tanner

My general philosophy regarding computers too

4924

General Software Discussion / Re: google results

« Last post by 4wd on November 26, 2009, 03:50 PM »

also, google is supposed to index uptodate only versions of webpages, and since this is not the cached version, I suppose google sees even now the more text

-kalos (November 25, 2009, 02:31 PM)

Google won't cache it because of this line in the source:

<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">

So what is displayed is always going to be whatever Google indexed, whenever it indexed it.

just wonder how google can do that and I want to use it for other websites as well...

A question: Did you initially search for "indication of early ego development, because instinctual needs are", a smaller subset of it or something completely different on that page?

I don't know how Google does it but I'm sure there is probably info on the WWW describing it - just need to search for it

A way to test whether Google does it normally is to search for something near the bottom of an article and see if Google has picked it up on a site you need to authenticate yourself on.

Assuming that Google has been allowed to index it, the following will stop compliant search engines from indexing the page and any links from it:

<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

Or the existence of a robots.txt file in the root with appropriate rules.

4925

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

« Last post by 4wd on November 25, 2009, 12:49 AM »

Somebody came up with a 'classic' start menu for for all those people who don't like the new one. It's called CSmenu, and it can be found here: www.csmenu.com

Check out how they even managed to include some aero bling while they were at it!

-40hz (November 19, 2009, 12:51 PM)

Because it's quicker to have everything displayed at once and scan it for what you want than to have to mouse click forwards and backwards through the narrow slot that is the W7 Start Menu.

For those of you who want the Classic menu with Aero for free check out:

Classic Windows Start Menu



Unfortunately it doesn't work if the Taskbar isn't at the bottom