Recent Posts

501

General Software Discussion / Re: .NET Framework 3.5 install advice

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 15, 2009, 11:32 AM »

In some of the .Net releases, MS has introduced tiny changes in behavior. It's possible that these changes could break an application, although I've never run into such a situation -- and I work with .Net all day, every day.

Given several versions of .Net on your machine, the .Net loader will prefer to run an application on the version that it was actually built for, so any of these incompatibilities will not be encountered anyway. Of course, if you've only got 3.5, then that's what the loader will use, and you'll almost certainly be OK.

502

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Songsmith

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 14, 2009, 09:55 AM »

I called that:

Remember "Band in a Box"? This seems similar to that, except this appears to fill in a harmony based on the melody of your voice.

-CWuestefeld (January 13, 2009, 08:32 PM)

From the web site of PG Software, the folks who make Band in a Box:

503

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Songsmith

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 14, 2009, 05:35 AM »

Band in the Box is really quite cool software (and is still being actively developed). It is more like an intelligent loop based based composition system....
but only really scratched the surface of what it can do.

-Carol Haynes (January 14, 2009, 03:33 AM)

Yes, I'm fond of it myself.

If you're into this kind of thing and have been around for awhile, you might be familiar with another related piece of software. It was published some 20 years ago for the Atari ST platform. RealTime was revolutionary for its UI on the ST, but it also allowed an easy-to-use method of building music algorithmically in a user-friendly way. I'm proud to say that it was written by my then-roommate Eric, and I had a small hand in writing the copy protection for the product.

I really wish that someone would port RealTime to Windows, or build something similar.

504

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft Songsmith

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 13, 2009, 08:32 PM »

Remember "Band in a Box"? This seems similar to that, except this appears to fill in a harmony based on the melody of your voice.

505

Living Room / Re: What may you be missing?

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 13, 2009, 08:38 AM »

I think the writer completely missed what are the most significant conclusions.

First, and most significantly, Manhattan has a tremendous and diverse population (and I mean diverse in a real, meaningful sense, not the sneaky codeword for affirmative action). There is ample room for there to be a crowd big enough to love this music enough to sell out a performance, while statistically not a single one of those people walks past the subway performance. So this experience doesn't necessarily tell us anything about people per se.

Also, as Fred and Darwin suggested, in something as subtle as classical violin, where appreciation is certainly an acquired taste*, it's hardly surprising for folks to have a herd mentality, where they don't perceive the (alleged) value until other folks are seen to value it. If you think about it, the same thing is true about gold and other precious metals and gems. I mean, there's nothing really intrinsic to gold that improves our life; we choose to share a collective fiction that we should all value it.

* Contrary to what any snob tells you, you can't appreciate concert violin without being educated about it. Indeed, I'd say that most any art form requires that we learn its vocabulary before it can be appreciated. I can give you heaps of objective argument as to why thrash metal music is a beautiful artform (no, really!), but a casual listener isn't going to perceive any of that without spending the time to understand it. Much of the criticism of contemporary artists like, e.g., Mapplethorpe is due to the fact that they use established media without conforming to the understood vocabulary of that media, thus causing those who try to interpret it conventionally to conclude that it's meaningless (and their love of shocking viewers doesn't help either).

506

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: LifeSaver diary

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 11, 2009, 08:08 PM »

Wow, that was fast!  Thanks a lot.

-ssoundman (January 11, 2009, 07:19 PM)

It turns out to have been any easy fix. I can't make promises for the future 

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: LifeSaver diary

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 11, 2009, 07:12 PM »

I clicked on one of the calendar navigational buttons by accident, after entering some things into an entry. When I went back to look later I realized that some info was missing, so I did a little test, typing in some numbers in this series: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (with no space after the 1) and the only thing which was saved was the data prior to 5, 4, 3 (with no space after the 3). It appears that the last 6 characters I type are lost if I click on a navigational button in the calendar itself without clicking on anything else first.

-ssoundman (January 09, 2009, 01:03 PM)

Thanks for alerting me to this bug. I've just posted a new update, version 1.0.3298, that should fix this problem. There are no other changes in this build. You can get the latest version from the original post in this thread.

508

Living Room / Re: Help others help themselves: Microcredit Online via site Kiva.org

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 11, 2009, 12:30 PM »

Kudos to you.

There's an old saying, something like:

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day;
Teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime.

I think the microcredit idea is very much like "teaching him to fish".

Amongst economists, the jury is still out on how positive the effect of this might really be , but it still feels to me like the right thing to do. I've been planning to make such an investment, but just haven't gotten around to it; maybe you'll be my inspiration.

509

Living Room / Re: eBook readers

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 10, 2009, 07:48 AM »

I've been using portable devices to read eBooks for many years now. I started way-back-when on a Palm, and have been through a few generations of PocketPC devices. I'm currently using a Dell Axim x51v which, with its VGA display, is absolutely gorgeous to read from. And while these don't have the battery life of your eink device, they're much more flexible.


I despise the way that most ebook readers carry the limitations of pagination into the digital world. Pages are evil. They interrupt the flow, preventing you from smoothly scanning through the whole book. At the end of a page you must remember the first half of the sentence without being able to see the rest of the context, then flip the page to complete it without being able to see the start.

PDF files give you the absolute worst of this world. Since their raison d'etre is to duplicate the look of printed output, and you're displaying on a device that doesn't match the attributes of paper, you're guaranteed to be disappointed in one way or another. When faced with a PDF I usually say "forget it", in the few cases where I can't stand to I'll use a PDF2TXT or PDF2HTML converter to try and get the content out of the file.

For my whole ebook experience I've been using a single piece of software, iSilo. It's been ported to pretty much everywhere, so any device you like it should run on. It's a fair reader in all respects, having all the normal features of bookmarks, hyperlinking, etc. But to me, its compelling feature is that it's not bound by page breaks. It allows continuous reading throughout the document. I've got it configured so that it scrolls by 1/2 screen at a time, so I can always see an unbroken sentence (or paragraph, for that matter).

510

Living Room / Re: New here, is there's any accounting or billing software - here or elsewhere

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 10, 2009, 07:35 AM »

I have no experience with this, but the price may be right for you: you can get Microsoft Office Accounting Express 2009 for free: http://www.freeafter...ounting-express-2009

One would hope that this would be Vista-compatible 

511

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: LifeSaver diary

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 10, 2009, 07:26 AM »

Could I run this on 2 (or more) machines at the same time and use a single datastore on a mapped or network drive?

-Dex (January 10, 2009, 05:42 AM)

If the app was only running on one machine at a time, it would work, but I'm not recommending it. If it were me, I'd forget to close the app on one machine and muck everything up.

I hate to work against myself, but I'd advise you to look elsewhere. You might consider EverNote, which is designed to sync notes between multiple computers (and if you snag an old Version 2, it will do so right through a file share rather than their over-the-web service). Or take a look at Stickies, which allows you to create sticky notes on your desktop, and has a feature allowing network sync.

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N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: LifeSaver diary

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 09, 2009, 07:45 PM »

Thanks for trying it, ssoundman.

I just downloaded/installed version 1.0.3288. The navigational buttons for moving between entries are really close to the calendar buttons, and I clicked on one of the calendar navigational buttons by accident ...

Is it possible to relocate those Entry navigation buttons to the area immediately above the list of entries (or perhaps incorporate a Save button)?

-ssoundman (January 09, 2009, 01:03 PM)

Honestly, I've done the same thing. But I don't want to move the prev/next arrows as you said, because my intent is to add Tagging to the app, and the buttons would move between similarly-tagged entries when in that mode. Let me give it some more thought.

I thought that it should automatically save whenever the HTML editor loses focus, but perhaps I missed something there. I'll put that down as a bug and see what I can do.

is it possible to make the font style and size preferences permanent?

-ssoundman (January 09, 2009, 01:03 PM)

Not as such. But I was thinking of allowing you to apply a CSS style sheet to editor, which would get much the same effect. How does that sound?

I don't suppose you might port it into a Palm OS-compatible application?   

-ssoundman (January 09, 2009, 01:03 PM)

Sorry, no chance of PalmOS. The whole thing is written for .Net, and I don't think that Mono runs there, does it? Perhaps I will make a PocketPC/SmartPhone version.

Let me know if you encounter any other issues.

513

General Software Discussion / Re: Note-handling applications redux ... (I lost one) ...

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 07, 2009, 04:00 PM »

Another possibility is Surfulater? This is rather similar to Evernote in many ways.

514

General Software Discussion / Re: Note-handling applications redux ... (I lost one) ...

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 07, 2009, 08:31 AM »

As Paul said, that sounds a bit like the way Evernote works.

515

Developer's Corner / Re: Seeking Programming Language To Learn

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 06, 2009, 04:59 PM »

This has been discussed around here a time or two, but every time, people find a slightly different way to ask the question, leading to slightly different answers.

One thing you emphasized is that you'd like to be able to read a program more like real English. There's actually a technical term for this: "fluent interface". Most modern Object-Oriented languages enable this to varying degrees: Java, C#, python, ruby, etc. I believe that Ruby goes the farthest in this direction, but the same attributes that give it this advantage also allow it to become quite cryptic if you're not careful. My opinion (which I'll get flack for) is that Java is getting quite long-in-the-tooth, and not quite able to carry innovation into the 21st Century with the foundation it's built on.

So my suggestions would be either C# or python. Both of these languages are at the cutting edge of development, giving you access to the most recent improvements in development technologies. You can get free development environments for either of these. I believe that C# probably has a more mature development community in which you can find books and other documentation, examples, and so forth. But python, being a dynamic language, probably gets you closer to the fluent interface.

Another consideration should be the state of libraries that are available for a given language/platform. There's no point in re-inventing the wheel; you can build your applications much faster if you're able to leverage work that other people have done already. Both C# and python excel in this respect. You can find numerous web sites for each that specialize in the sharing of libraries for most any application you can name.

516

Find And Run Robot / Re: Network access?

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 06, 2009, 04:45 PM »

well, an easy solution would be to *not* add UNC paths to the launch history, right ?

-d4ni (January 06, 2009, 02:15 PM)

Or simply not attempt to load the file's icon. If it were to just blindly assume that if it worked last time, it'll work again, then it could put the reference into the history list without trying to validate it.

517

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Web Developer 2008 - newbie questions and help requests

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 05, 2009, 09:08 AM »

You can put anything you want into a DB (depending on the DB engine you're using). If you're using SQL Server, for example, you'd want to declare the column as type VARBINARY(MAX). The way to insert the flash into the DB is just like you'd insert anything else: get the data (probably by writing a program that reads the bits from the .swf file) and then insert it into the DB. I understand that SQL Server 2008 has a way to pass through stuff like this so it actually gets stored in the filesystem, but I haven't tried it.

The challenging part here is getting the flash back out in a usable fashion. You'd normally just EMBED an object into the HTML that refers to the .swf file. When the browser want the flash, it sends a request to your server that downloads that file. The thing is, you've no longer got a file -- you stuffed it into the database! So you've got to make a page that reads the database and streams it back to the user (rather than returning HTML as you normally would), and use that as the URL of the object in the EMBED.

I've done this all before, but in my experience it's rarely worth the trouble. Generally you can get what you need just by storing the path/filename of the SWF and serving that out when page is constructed.

518

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Relog

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 05, 2009, 08:22 AM »

Here's a link to the first article I found detailing how to configure this in the registry.
http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/13/

But this isn't going to help you if you're just logging off; IIRC, it only triggers as the system is booting.

On the other hand, that may be just what you want. Applying Windows Updates requires actually rebooting; logging out isn't sufficient to free some of the files that are locked and thus prevented from updating.

On the other other hand, you don't even need to log out to free the memory that Firefox leaks. All you need to do is close the app and restart it. Firefox even has a hotkey for this: Ctrl-Alt-R. And it'll even remember your open tabs (or it does if you're using TabMixPlus's session manager, anyway).

519

Living Room / Re: Portable MP3 player recommendations

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 02, 2009, 10:38 AM »

Thanks, cthorpe, my Zune is now back among the living.

But out of curiosity, what is the state of portable MP3 players these days? If my Zune hadn't resurrected, where should I be looking? And is the rockbox project still active? I looked at it, and as far as I can see they're not running on any current devices.

520

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Wrap Up

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 02, 2009, 08:40 AM »

Agreed, cheers to Perry. If you weren't on his list of pledges, you only saw a small part of the organization that he put into this.

521

Living Room / Re: Portable MP3 player recommendations

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 02, 2009, 05:30 AM »

Kind of implies surprise that they expect anyone still to be using that old a model.

Obviously their planned obsolescence has back-fired 

-4wd (January 01, 2009, 09:45 PM)

Setting aside my dismay at the severity of this bug that fell through the cracks, they've been remarkably good about keeping this old device up-to-date. They've been continuing to rev the firmware even since the release of the newer models. AFAIK, the only differences in features between my the and the newer 80s and 120s are that they can do H.264 video, which MS says my processor isn't fast enough for. Other than that, MS continues to carry the obsolete models forward.

522

Living Room / Portable MP3 player recommendations

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 01, 2009, 07:32 PM »

My Zune 30 just bricked, and I need a new player . I know that portable MP3 players have been discussed before (e.g., here), but I figure that this market changes enough that an update might be appropriate.

My default choice is a pretty direct replacement for the Zune with a Zune 80, available at Circuit City for $163. Here's my wish list:

• I'd like to keep the storage capacity to at least the same level as I have now, 30GB.
• The price should be under $200.
• Battery life should be at least 10 hours of audio playback.
• The UI should be easy to operate -- I listen in the car, and would prefer not to drive into a tree.
• I would prefer that it be accessible as simple USB mass storage (the Zune's closed interface is a pain)
• Being able to maintain a bookmark in a long track is absolutely critical, a non-negotiable feature. (Zune allows this if you lie to the thing, saying that your audiobook is a podcast)

I'm opposed to iPod because it's so darned expensive for its capabilities. I looked at Cowon and Creative Zen -- both of these are more expensive (particularly the Cowon), and I can't tell about the bookmarking capability.

Anyone care to help me with suggestions?

523

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: LifeSaver diary

« Last post by CWuestefeld on January 01, 2009, 03:10 PM »

I've just uploaded the official first release, version 1.0.3288. The original post has been updated to reflect the changes:

• Add EULA to installer and About box
• Fix installer to overwrite old version
• Fix bug where changing entry body text forced rebuild of calendar
• Fix bug where XML export didn't close file immediately
• Add meta data to XML export
• Remove BETA warnings

The screenshot has been updated to match the changes to the app's look. And the app itself has been uploaded to my normal repository, as well as attached to the original post.

Folks, January First is a great day to start keeping a diary of your own 

524

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009: The Challenge Graphic

« Last post by CWuestefeld on December 22, 2008, 04:02 PM »

or else a cropped version of the naval seen focusing on the center image of cody.

-mouser (December 22, 2008, 12:41 PM)

...or perhaps Cody focusing on his navel?

525

Python / Re: Link to a series of python challenges

« Last post by CWuestefeld on December 22, 2008, 04:01 PM »

I found these, and finished two or maybe three. But I found that I was spending far more effort trying to figure out what, exactly, the question was, compared to the effort of figuring out how to answer it in Python. Who's got time for that kind of nonsense?