Recent Posts

501

DC Gamer Club / Re: Headset recommendations

« Last post by Jibz on January 31, 2013, 01:44 PM »

I'm currently using SteelSeries Siberia v2, which have fairly good sound and also work for music. The only complaint I might have is that they can be slightly hot when you use them for extended periods of time. It replaced my old Creative Fatal1ty headset, which was awful.

I've heard praise of the more expensive of the Sennheiser headsets as well.

If you want to be able to listen to music, and play games where you want to actually be able to tell where sounds come from, and if you use voice chat and don't want to sound like you're talking through a tin can and a long string, then don't buy the really cheap headsets .

502

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a minimalist Desktop Calendar Application..

« Last post by Jibz on January 31, 2013, 01:12 PM »

It's something I was looking at some years ago as well, I tried a few of them, and even bought VueMinder, which is awesome but does way too much I don't really need.

Right now I am just using Google Calendar, it has some clear advantages:

• When you close it, it uses zero system resources
• It's fairly simple, I have a month view, click a day to enter an appointment
• It syncs with the calendars of other members of the family without having to set up strange dropbox workarounds and what not
• It syncs with android phones seamlessly (and many of the calendar programs that do this actually do it through google calendar anyway)

I think you need to have a very specific need in order to create another calendar app, there are lots out there. I can see the point about making something simpler, because many of them are pretty advanced -- but I think it won't be long before you'll want something like sync.

503

General Software Discussion / Re: DVCS ? (All about Git, Mercurial-Hg and the like...)

« Last post by Jibz on January 31, 2013, 01:15 AM »

I was glad to see there is something like libgit2 that can be used for stuff like this, because quite frankly the half-baked msys smells-like-posix-spirit on top of Windows bash scripts all over the place official git is an abomination on Windows.

504

General Software Discussion / Re: DVCS ? (All about Git, Mercurial-Hg and the like...)

« Last post by Jibz on January 30, 2013, 01:32 PM »

Rather surprising:

http://blogs.msdn.co.../30/git-init-vs.aspx

Visual Studio will have Git support – and concretely, we released a CTP of a VSIX plugin for the Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 CTP today.

...

Why are we incorporating Git?

When we made the decision that we were going to take the DVCS plunge, we looked at many options.  Should we build something?  Buy something?  Adopt OSS?  We looked at Git, Mercurial and others.  It didn’t take long to realize that Git was quickly taking over the DVCS space and, in fact, is virtually synonymous with DVCS.  We thought hard about building something.  Git hasn’t been as friendly for Windows developers as on other platforms.  By building on Git, we can take all the time we might spend just “catching up” and spend that effort on something where we can add more distinctive value.  Choosing Git just made sense.

...

Older versions of VS & TFS – At this time, we are not planning to include Git integration in older versions of VS or TFS.

505

Living Room / Re: Open Letter to Skype

« Last post by Jibz on January 30, 2013, 09:56 AM »

http://www.schneier..../who_does_skype.html

506

General Software Discussion / Re: FastStone Image Viewer

« Last post by Jibz on January 30, 2013, 01:25 AM »

Nice, it is a very good piece of software considering it's free for home use .

507

Living Room / Re: I did not realize how bad Google has become

« Last post by Jibz on January 30, 2013, 01:19 AM »

This proof of concept was built by some engineers at Facebook, Twitter and Myspace

Well, at least they're honest about it .

Plus, who googles overly general terms like "cooking" or "movies" in the first place.

508

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« Last post by Jibz on January 30, 2013, 12:34 AM »

Chrome's only virtue is that it increased competition, but it also bought about horrid UI paradigms (tabs in title bar), insane numbering schemes etc.

-MrCrispy (January 29, 2013, 04:27 PM)

I agree about the version numbering, though I do like the reason behind it -- their rapid release schedule has worked well for them (but perhaps not quite as well for FF).

I do generally like the UI though, annoying as it may feel at first, there is nothing getting in your way, and vertical space is still sparse.  And it certainly is better than that odd FF menu button with the double width menu -- if you want to manually check for updates because the auto-check isn't working for a change, you have to find About in the Help menu, which (to me) feels a bit like that game where you have to move your mouse pointer through a maze without touching the walls .

There are two things that do bug me about the Chrome UI -- only one row of tabs, and the missing separator in bookmarks.

509

General Software Discussion / Re: sublime text: some innovative text editor!

« Last post by Jibz on January 29, 2013, 08:59 AM »

I am just wondering: what is so special in this editor?

I've tried it twice already (2 weeks of non-stop use each time) and always went back to N++.
Maybe that's because I have always felt I can't bend my habits to it?

-fenixproductions (January 29, 2013, 06:24 AM)

I switched to ST2 from N++, mostly because of two features:

Firstly, goto anything, or more specifically, the way it uses lazy matching to let you go to anything -- it is literally like having the power of FARR inside your editor. You can switch between projects, between files in a project, and jump around symbols in a file using lazy match lookup.

Secondly, multiple selections, which is a bit like search and replace on steroids. You can do most of what it does with regexp search and replace, but having the visual feedback from live editing is so nice, plus you don't have to go to a separate dialog and start thinking about regexp.

Mind you, I was quite reluctant about moving away from N++, when I moved from UltraEdit to N++ I thought to myself "I am never paying for an editor again, this is great".

ST2 has been around since Summer 2008, at least the first versions. This is quite a life span. But the pricing is weird.

-Tuxman (January 29, 2013, 06:16 AM)

Non-beta only since Jun26, though, unless dates on the blog are wrong? I count product lifetime from 'release' version and onwards - perhaps that's wrong of me?

I respect that there's no silly "lifetime upgrade" licenses, I respect that there's no discounts, and that the product is priced relatively high... but bumping the price to $70, and already announcing ST3? 

-f0dder (January 29, 2013, 06:25 AM)

I agree, that is bothering me a bit as well. I guess maybe he should have called one of the earlier beta versions a release and fixed bugs in point releases instead of being in beta for years. This way people get the feeling they paid for a release that only had a single point update.

Regarding pricing, to me he is passing the point of reasonable for something that is "just an editor", no matter how efficient it may be. But if you read the forums, it feels like there is a bunch of devs standing in line to throw money at him, so it will probably work.

510

General Software Discussion / Re: sublime text: some innovative text editor!

« Last post by Jibz on January 29, 2013, 12:41 AM »

http://www.sublimete.../sublime-text-3-beta

The first beta of Sublime Text 3 is now available to download for registered users. Some feature highlights are below, followed by our new pricing and upgrade policies, and system compatibility for Sublime Text 3.

Just installed the beta, so haven't used it yet, but it sure does start fast compared to ST2 .

There is sure to be some moaning about having to upgrade, but to be honest I am just happy the reason he has been so secretive isn't that he is selling ST to some company who can then proceed to destroy it.

511

General Software Discussion / Re: 2013 Version: Browser Wars

« Last post by Jibz on January 28, 2013, 02:44 AM »

I am using Chrome mostly, and I think coupled with WOT and some kind of adblocker it offers a good compromise right now.

I installed it as a second browser besides firefox a year or two ago, with the plan to keep my google account logged in on Chrome and only use it to check gmail and such. Since then I have shifted to mainly using Chrome, primarily because it has just worked for me -- no annoying update procedures that sometimes do not work from non-admin accounts, no fighting with noscript to get sites to work, no updating flash player every other week.

What dawned on me was that I don't really browse the more shady parts of the internet, and the cost of google knowing that I visit DonationCoder and a couple of coding resources -- to me -- was greatly outweighed by not having to waste time fighting with a piece of software that is so rudimentary to our online lives now, that it has to just work.

512

General Software Discussion / Re: The Best Of: text editors

« Last post by Jibz on January 24, 2013, 03:23 AM »

Interesting -- reminds me a bit of mouser's The Form Letter Machine.

513

Living Room / Re: Would a 41 megapixel camera get you to buy a Windows 8 phone?

« Last post by Jibz on January 24, 2013, 12:38 AM »

I don't know why people have gotten this unhealthy idea that more MP means better images. It seems unlikely they can make a lens for a phone that would give any kind of usefulness to 41 MP. Personally, I would much rather have a phone with a 5 MP camera and a stellar lens and better flash.

514

General Software Discussion / Re: PicPick vs FastStone Capture vs Screenshot Captor vs Jet Screenshot

« Last post by Jibz on January 23, 2013, 12:32 AM »

I have paid for, and continue to use, FastStone Capture. It is the EASIEST to use and has all of the features I need with very little clutter.

-Josh (January 22, 2013, 04:03 PM)

I had the same experience.

I am surprised Greenshot isn't mentioned.

515

General Software Discussion / Re: WinPatrol Plus or AnVir Task Manager?

« Last post by Jibz on January 20, 2013, 06:48 AM »

While the sysinternals suite is very powerful, I think for the majority of users something like WinPatrol is both easier and safer to use (as in less likely they will shoot themselves in the foot).

516

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: The MagicRAR Drive Press Challenge

« Last post by Jibz on January 15, 2013, 10:33 AM »

Could also be a rounding error -- you sometimes see programs where the last 0.5% show as 100%.

517

General Software Discussion / Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?

« Last post by Jibz on January 15, 2013, 10:25 AM »

I agree; if this discussion is just turning into free advertisement space, it is not worth the time .

518

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone testing Daminion Media Manager ?

« Last post by Jibz on January 15, 2013, 03:30 AM »

This latest version allows the location of folders to be updated (re-linked). For example, if a folder is moved to a location outside Daminion, it’s now possible to simply re-link to the new location without having to re-import the entire contents of the folder.

-K.Murat (January 15, 2013, 02:56 AM)

Great .

519

Living Room / Re: We are raising a generation of deluded narcissists

« Last post by Jibz on January 14, 2013, 03:35 AM »

Blaming the internet, games, even politics (fox news ), that article seems to have totally forgotten to mention the parents.

520

General Software Discussion / Re: Adobe CS2 for free? (NOT SPAM)

« Last post by Jibz on January 07, 2013, 04:53 PM »

I think after making a page with downloads available to anybody with an Adobe ID, and letting half the internet download the version that does not require activation, that is probably slightly too late.

521

General Software Discussion / Re: MagicRAR Drive Press - worth anything?

« Last post by Jibz on January 07, 2013, 03:08 PM »

I am sure mouser will comment on this soon, but let me just say that it's nice to see the author commenting here .

Looking over this thread, it seems like the people who commented were mostly regulars (1k+ posts) and certainly not to my knowledge affiliated with any "competitors". What you have seen here, I think, is the gut reaction of people who have been working with software for a long time, and who have seen a terrible lot of "bootstrap sites" claiming to do "magic" .

Now I have not tried your software, and I have no idea how it works, so I can in no way comment on the technical merits of it -- but please understand that they are not trying to spread FUD, but merely telling people to be cautious when it comes to "magic" on computers. If you've seen the amount of banner ads that claim to clean your computer and make it faster by "magic", you know that this is generally speaking good advice .

At any rate, I think it is great that you found your way here, now we can (hopefully) have a real discussion about your software.

As I said, I haven't been a part of this discussion, and I haven't tried your software so I cannot comment on it -- however, I do feel I can make a comment about point 1:

1. The Product Name

Unfortunately, the domains magiczip and zipmagic were both taken. So was rarmagic, but magicrar was available. Since the product's shell namespace integration is unique, there was no clearer way to communicate this than to append or prepend the phrase "magic" to one of the most commonly recognized archive formats. There are countless utilities with the name ZIP, and by your reasoning you should go and flame them as well for cashing in on the "ZIP brand".

-simonking (January 07, 2013, 01:30 PM)

Zip is an open standard (and has been for a long time), which anybody can implement. Rar on the other hand is proprietary software. I would say calling your software MagicZip is akin to calling your stylesheet editor MagicCSS, or your image viewer MagicJPG. I.e. there is no commercial interest behind the "ZIP brand" anymore (if you call your software MagicWinZip on the other hand .. ).

I assume you have somehow cleared your use of the name with the people behind Rar -- it doesn't look like you licensed their compression technology, but rather use WinRAR as a plugin if installed?

522

General Software Discussion / Re: Adobe CS2 for free? (NOT SPAM)

« Last post by Jibz on January 07, 2013, 10:39 AM »

Nice one .

523

Living Room / Re: The temperature at which Hell freezes over - Absolute Zero?

« Last post by Jibz on January 07, 2013, 04:58 AM »

I thought there was a good explanation of this stuff in this post. I don't know physics well enough to say if it's correct, but it seemed understandable as opposed to all the "omg hocus pocus harry potter hell freezes over breaking the laws of physics" posts on one side and the "thermal transcient quantum states in solid matter collissions provide ample basis for Leichmann-reductions of the bounded movement differential" posts on the other (and yes, that was total made up physics nonsense) .

524

N.A.N.Y. 2013 / Re: NANY Thoughts from Developers?

« Last post by Jibz on January 03, 2013, 02:20 PM »

My usual problem is finding something that fits more than just one of these criteria:

• I am able to code it
• I would be interested in coding it
• It would be even slightly useful to anybody at all

525

General Software Discussion / Re: Good coding conventions - Discussion

« Last post by Jibz on January 03, 2013, 01:11 PM »

As an example, if you take this simple function

-Jibz (January 03, 2013, 07:47 AM)

Well... your sut_open is actually an example of what I consider to be "noise" comments - IMHO they don't really tell anything that the individual API calls don't already (I'm not familiar with those APIs, though I guess they're related to performance counters). Personally I'd probably rename make_counterpath() -> make_uptime_counter_path(), and get rid of all the comments...

But I might add a comment on how to actually get at the counter value, since that's not evident from the code if you're not familiar with the Pdh API (hm, you add a counter to the query, but there's no "execute" thingy, and you close the query handle right after the add? That looks quirky, but none of the comments say anything about it.) Oh, and I'd replace sizeof(array)/sizeof(elem) with a lengthof macro (for C++, I'd probably use a template function for it, since it's slightly ever more typesafe, but this seems to be über-pure C code, from the single-line block comments ).

-f0dder (January 03, 2013, 11:43 AM)

I am sorry, I thought it was obvious that this was a single function taken from a file -- there are functions to access the values and close the query as well .

And (if you'll excuse the tongue-in-cheek) if you think it closes the query right after adding, then I'll take that as an example that even simple code is not easy to read compared to comments .