Recent Posts

5251

Best E-mail Client / Re: Seriously, what is MicroEd good for?

« Last post by superboyac on June 17, 2008, 12:42 PM »

Thanks for the response!
Yeah, I understand the inherent usefulness of the free caret.  But in the 2 years that I've been using the Bat, I have never needed to type outside of the normal paragraph parameters.  The rest of the time, the free caret is an annoyance, because I have to make sure I click the mouse in just the right place where I want to type.  In normal typing applications, I can click the mouse anywhere past the last character in the paragraph, and the caret will just stay at the end.  There's less thinking, it's just easier.

What I'm saying is that although MicroEd has definite advantages, those features are used so little and rarely (for me) that the rest of the time, those additional features are just a nuisance and results in more work and thinking for me.  Anyway, I haven't been using MicroEd lately.

5252

Living Room / Re: How can I get hard drive space... without deleting (my) stuff?

« Last post by superboyac on June 16, 2008, 06:22 PM »

SpaceMonger is so cool.  I love this program.  I can't say that it's useful on a daily basis, but you just have to have it!

5253

Living Room / Re: How can I get hard drive space... without deleting (my) stuff?

« Last post by superboyac on June 16, 2008, 05:20 PM »

That's impossible, dude.
How do I get more money, without actually getting more money?

5254

Living Room / Re: Registry hack needed: Full date in the tray clock

« Last post by superboyac on June 12, 2008, 11:10 PM »

I must be missing something, because I can't make the time font green and the date font yellow like superboyac did. It would be nice if it could be like on KDE where you can have different font sizes for time and date. I thought some kind of tag could be used on the time and date format string to represent the colors.

By the way, I used Betaclock at work on Windows XP and it worked fine, but it doesn't seem to work on my Vista x64 home machine. I'm using t-clock at home, but it doesn't seem to support different font/color for time and date either.

-dominus (June 12, 2008, 09:17 PM)

hehe, Dominus.  It's not as simple as you might think.  I needed help from the author of the program to see how to do that.  Let me explain:
In the setup screen, below where it says "General", there is a blue "+" button.  Use this button to add an additional clock.  Now you have two clocks and the font, color, etc. of each clock can be modified independently.  That's how it is done.

5255

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by superboyac on June 05, 2008, 12:41 PM »

Done! See http://mantis.sqlnot....net/view.php?id=381

-PPLandry (June 05, 2008, 12:10 PM)

Wow!  FAST!

5256

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by superboyac on June 05, 2008, 11:52 AM »

Well, the way I see it is that it prevents the pane from popping in whenever you touch the tab by mistake (reduce an autohide toolbar delay to 0ms , and it keeps getting in the way if your mouse happens to travel a bit too far in a direction or another). It could be a user option.

But the popping out could be faster, since that has no real purpose that I can think of.

-Armando (June 05, 2008, 11:46 AM)

Yes, it should definitely be an option where the user can specify in milliseconds the pop in and pop out time delay.  I've asked for this for years in AutoCAD but they never do it.

5257

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by superboyac on June 05, 2008, 10:29 AM »

Thinking out load here, What would you users think if the HTML pane was attached to the grid, as opposed to the main window. You'd get
1- multiple instances, one per grid
2- switching between grids would automatically show/hide/position it as required, so a Gantt grid would have none, or one on the bottom, but switching to an EN type grid would have it on the right.

Would that completely replace the current HTML pane, or do you see uses to the current main-window docked one?

-PPLandry (June 04, 2008, 09:44 PM)

I don't see why anyone should have a problem with this because it does everything the current HTML Pane does, but more.  I would welcome the additional flexibility.
One thing I'd like to mention about things that get shown/hidden automatically (including the field pane which can be set to auto-hide).  I prefer that the reactions are instantaneous.  So, if the html is going to be on auto-hide (or the field pane) I'd rather it pops out as soon as my mouse touches the tab, and disappears immediately after my mouse leaves.  No delays.  Right now, there is a delay (which seems to be the normal thing for most programs) where the mouse has to sit there for a little bit before the pane pops out.  I'm sure some people like the delay, but it just slows things down.
"That's all I have to say about that." [Forrest Gump]

5258

Living Room / Re: flash-card programs to learn a new (human) language. What's the best?

« Last post by superboyac on May 29, 2008, 06:29 PM »

Depending on your needs, I think supermemo has some advantages over fullrecall. It will be worth trying both.

Also worth looking at free alternatives such as Anki, Mnemosyne and Teach2000.

-Dormouse (May 29, 2008, 04:54 PM)

I know there was this discussion in another thread.  But I wouldn't go to Supermemo unless I strongly felt limited by Fullrecall.  If it's a question of learning vocabulary (just words+definitions) I would strongly recommend Fullrecall and not Supermemo.  Supermemo can do some very particular and very fancy things that Fullrecall can't, but I wouldn't even consider it unless I was going to do those fancy things.  Supermemo's interface is certifiably annoying, and Fullrecall's interface is huggably pleasant.

5259

Living Room / Re: flash-card programs to learn a new (human) language. What's the best?

« Last post by superboyac on May 29, 2008, 11:56 AM »

FullRecall is the best.  I just used it for a math class and it worked great.  Fantastic program.

5260

Living Room / Re: Why is all audio on websites so freakin loud?!

« Last post by superboyac on May 18, 2008, 01:34 PM »

I only know about IndieVolume.  It crashes often for me also on a lot of webpages.  Kind of defeats the purpose, but the author is constantly removing bugs, so i can't really complain.  I think it's difficult to make it really stable because everyone's internet programs are so wildly different, especially with Firefox and all the plugins and stuff.  FOr an audio program to intercept and work smoothly with everything must be difficult.

PS  Go to the new Milk website for whitegoldiswhitegold.com  It is SO LOUD, even on my very low volume settings.  Geez, it's insane.  I wish there was an application like TV's have now where the volume adjusts so it never goes over a certain volume.

5261

Living Room / Re: Registry hack needed: Full date in the tray clock

« Last post by superboyac on May 17, 2008, 05:47 PM »

That's weird... especially since alfaclock.com shows BetaClock on the page as if there is a connection, linking to the latest version.

-Loonier (May 17, 2008, 04:37 AM)

Really!?  I don't see where the betaclock reference is.  Can you show a screenshot of it?
Maybe I'm wrong about the history, it's just what I've been able to piece together in the past.  Maybe the author for both softwares is the same guy.  it would make sense because the two programs are almost exactly the same.  but then, why does he have betaclock (which is free), alfaclock classic (which is free), and alfaclock II (which is shareware).  It's really weird, strangest thing I've ever seen.

5262

Living Room / Re: Registry hack needed: Full date in the tray clock

« Last post by superboyac on May 17, 2008, 01:44 AM »

Super, how does BetaClock (now Freeware) relate to AlfaClock Free in features? The latest BetaClock install file is ~42% the size of that of AlfaClock 1.99 (on download.com; shows 1.90 on alfaclock.com), but that does not necessarily mean anything... BetaClock may just be "leaner & meaner".

-Loonier (May 16, 2008, 09:18 AM)

This is a strange story, let me explain:

BetaClock used to be called AlphaClock and was always free.  Then someone apparently ripped it off and made AlfaClock which was shareware.  As you can see it was really confusing to try to find the original and what was actually going on.  You couldn't tell if the shareware was the true version or the free one was the true version, or even if maybe they were all by the same author.  Anyway, so the original guy renamed his Betaclock and it is still free (and the best).  Alfaclock is still around, but I would consider it a ripoff.

The unfortunate thing is that the Betaclock author has the most minimalist webpage, I think it just has a link to the program and that's it.

I looked around pretty intensely for clock software and I think Betaclock is the best, hands down.

5263

Living Room / Re: Pirating abandoned content?

« Last post by superboyac on May 15, 2008, 10:30 AM »

I did this for a math textbook recently.  I ordered the text book online, but there were unexpected problems with shipping and inventory.  So, the book got delayed by several weeks.  But I needed it because the class had already started!  So, I found a scanned version of it online and I used that for a couple of weeks until the book arrived.

5264

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: FillCD equivalent

« Last post by superboyac on May 14, 2008, 04:32 AM »

[edited for stupidity]

5265

General Software Discussion / Software to change tooltip settings in XP?

« Last post by superboyac on May 10, 2008, 04:08 PM »

Does anyone know of a software (freeware or shareware) that can change the popup settings, appearance, etc. of the default XP tooltip popups?

5266

Living Room / Why is all audio on websites so freakin loud?!

« Last post by superboyac on May 09, 2008, 11:38 PM »

Why is the audio on websites so loud all the time?  It's always loud, and I'm not talking just a little too loud.  It's more like it's 5 times the volume of what anyone could possibly want.  And it has nothing to do with your local audio settings because that is always set to what you prefer to hear.  Even if you have your local settings to pretty low volume, the website audio is super loud.  Like on youtube, the comfortable setting for me with my local audio settings is with the youtube slider at about 5% with the rare exception.  All flash videos and audio playing embedded on websites are ridiculously loud.  Anything on myspace is crazy loud.

I use IndieVolume to deal with it, but why the hell does it have to be so loud in the first place.  Possibly the most annoying thing about the web.

5267

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Notescribe not taking software - request for reviews

« Last post by superboyac on May 07, 2008, 03:30 PM »

Yeah, it seems I was a lot less busy two years ago when I did that review.  Things have changed so much since then in the note-taking world.  Evernote went Web 2.0...SQLNotes emerged as an amazing utility.  I would say that that Roundup I did isn't even particularly useful anymore since it's so out of date.

NoteScribe looks interesting.  If I get a chance, I would love to fiddle around with it and give my comments.

5268

Living Room / Re: Registry hack needed: Full date in the tray clock

« Last post by superboyac on May 05, 2008, 06:47 PM »

Thanks for the suggestion Super, I'll check that out as well, though my original intent was that I needed to see the full date without constantly hovering my systray notification area or installing yet another thingamabob cluttering my desktop.

-Edvard (May 05, 2008, 05:58 PM)

The calendar pops up on a mouse-click (one or two-click depending on how you set it up).  You can do really fancy things with the display.  I wanted to be able to see seconds, hours, minutes, full date, weekday name.

By the way, see the way I have the time in green and slightly different font?  That's a little trick that most people wouldn't be able to do from first glance!

FYI, when I single-click on the clock, this calendar pops-up (if I double-click, I open up the settings dialog):

5269

Living Room / Re: Registry hack needed: Full date in the tray clock

« Last post by superboyac on May 05, 2008, 05:46 PM »

I would argue that BetaClock is better.  I think it is more flexible, includes a flexible popup calendar, and has been updated recently more often.  The website has been completely stripped down, but the program is the best.  I'm ashamed to admit that I once spend several weeks looking for the best system tray clock utility, and I settled on Betaclock because it was perfect.

5270

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by superboyac on April 30, 2008, 04:27 PM »

OK, thanks (I should probably add that to Mantis).

I'll experiment more with the Gantt charts later.  I'm sure you are aware, but by adding Gantt charts, there are a whole bunch of details in the way the schedules are setup.  Things like creating a work days vs total days schedule, dependancies, etc.  I'm not sure how much functionality your chart has vs something like MS Project.  How bold of you to even include it!

5271

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« Last post by superboyac on April 30, 2008, 01:56 PM »

Gantt charts!!  That is so awesome.

OK, I was trying out the Gantt charts.  I got a couple of errors when I tried to create the default configuration (using the Gantt wizard that pops up).  I used the default button, but my columns did not get added automatically (I don't know if they were supposed to).  Also, that top bar that shows the overall schedule (in your screenshot above) didn't show on mine.  Also, how do we edit and change the details of each item in the Gantt chart?

Feature request:
Since this program is now getting more modules and capabilities, I think it might be important to have layout control per each grid.  For example, in a grid with a Gantt chart, I'll probably want to dock my notes on the bottom instead of the side, so the chart will have more room.  But in other grids, I want the notes on the side.  Instead of turning them on and off all the time, it would be highly useful to set a default layout for each grid.  Other similar situations involve grids with pivot tables.

5272

General Software Discussion / Re: Total Commander 7.03 for Windows released!

« Last post by superboyac on April 28, 2008, 10:51 AM »

Great program.  Before DOpus, I used TC all the time.  Even now, TC is faster and better for certain tasks.  I've always thought that it had the fastest and most efficient mouse navigation setup of all the the file managers.  I've even requested similar features for DOpus on their forums several times, but nobody else was interested.

5273

General Software Discussion / Re: What's a good memorization software?

« Last post by superboyac on April 26, 2008, 11:56 PM »

You know, I shouldn't be so hard on SuperMemo.  I just think the author would be well served to completely revamp the interface of the software.  Now, I don't like to focus on things like interface, especially when a program offers a lot of power and customizeability like SuperMemo, but you have to draw the line somewhere.  Supermemo's interface is closer to Windows 3.1 than to Windows XP, and that is just 10 years too old for me.

I still say FullRecall is the more practical and easier solution now.  If you use FullRecall and you are not able to do something, then I would turn to SuperMemo, but not before.  Furthermore, if FullRecall keeps adding features at it's current rate, I think it will soon overtake SuperMemo's userbase.  Hopefully, it will force Supermemo to update its interface.

Tamasd, that's a nice article, it gave me a lot of respect for Supermemo's author.  It's great when someone comes up with a software that can revolutionize simple, yet important tasks in our everyday lives.

5274

General Software Discussion / Re: What's a good memorization software?

« Last post by superboyac on April 25, 2008, 08:33 PM »

One question though. Is the advantage of scheduling and shuffling using these progs really better than having sequential Qs & As in Powerpoint where you can get much more control over layout impact etc?

-Dormouse (April 25, 2008, 05:19 PM)

Yes, there is a significant advantage.  It's much more efficient and productive.  If you do it the way you described, you yourself have to keep track of what you know and what you don't know.  That's a lot of work, and it's unnecessary.  You should instead spend your time memorizing what you don't know.

When you make a list yourself, sometimes you remember something by it's position in the list, or by what came before that item in the list.  So you can't be sure if you really memorized it or if you had help?  OK, so you randomize it like you would a real flash card deck.  But then, you might keep coming across items you already know...that's not efficient.  OK...so you remove the ones you know as you come across it and put it in a different pile.  But now you're doing a whole lot of work.  Wouldn't it be better for the software to keep track of everything for you?

One word of advice, and this is just personal.  Make it easy on yourself.  If you don't have to spend so much time on your layout, don't.  The goal here is to commit to memory, not to have a pretty and accurate presentation.

For my math class, I used FullRecall in a not so normal way.  You see, it would be a lot of work writing out all the definitions, theorems, and homework problems inside of the program.  It would take forever.  So, instead of completely filling in the Q&A, I just put in prompts.  For example, instead of writing the entire question, I would just write (8-1) which means chapter 8 question 1.  So when it came up, I'd open the book and do the problem from there.

Again, all you want to program to do is to keep track of what you know and what you don't.  By the end of the process, you will have mastered everything.  It's amazing.

5275

General Software Discussion / Re: What's a good memorization software?

« Last post by superboyac on April 25, 2008, 04:30 PM »

OK guys, this thread got revived at a good time for me to update on FullRecall.  FullRecal is the best of these programs, by far.  I'm speaking generaly here; for 90% of users, FullRecall should be the best.  If there are very particular features you are looking for, then maybe not.
I just used FullRecall to help me master this midterm for a graduate math class that involves memorizing lots of definitions and theorems.  This program is lightweight, effective, and easy to use, but is still as powerful as it should be.  Supermemo is just too much and the interface is insane, there's no need to deal with that for most people...I would go so far as saying it would be a waste of time, especially with FullRecall out there.
The hardest part with FullRecall was synchronizing databases.  I used it at work, at home, and on my laptop.  So how was I supposed to keep my database (which keeps track of what you've learned) updated all the time?  Well, FullRecall has a net export/import feature which allows you to keep your database updated and stored on FullRecall's server.  This worked great, except at work, where access was blocked.  So, at work, I used ftp to sync it with home.  however, this was inconvenient.  Anyway, David (the author) told me that in a few weeks there will be a web version of FullRecall that will use the server database and that will solve all these mobility problems.  Great program, really top notch.

VTrain was garbage, I might add also.