Recent Posts

5451

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of a partition identifier ...

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 05, 2011, 03:55 PM »

If nobody on BootLand forum knows, then I don't know who would:

http://reboot.pro/index.php?

5452

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 04, 2011, 01:44 PM »

by the way, does anyone know if there exists a chart where you can look up a version number to get the build number?

It's really messy the way they do the nightly builds.  When you try to get back to an older version with the version number you pretty much have to hunt down the date.  Even when you open a build folder and look in the revisions or change log xml file it doesn't give any version number info.

I haven't had any luck with search.  Only place they seem to be together is in the About Chromium dialog.

5453

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 04, 2011, 01:03 PM »

Hmmmmm, this is interesting.  I updated Chromium to 11.x and the Settings page Under The Hood has this stuff about suggesting pages if a url doesn't resolve etc..  To do this, guess what? It sends the info to Google!!

edit: now that I have 10.x set up again(10.0.602.0 seems to be the last one with the old style setting page) I see it had the same "features."  Even the phishing protection sounds like it's sending everything through Google.

Guess they figure if they just keeping popping it up we'll get tired of play whack-a-mole and giving up on pounding it back down. As it goes along it seems like the distinction between Chrome and Chromium is only semantic.

Version 11.x broke my AutoCopy extension so I had to back track anyway.

Just imagine if all the stuff Google collects is in print-outs someplace? I wonder how many trees that would be?

edit2: guess this setting has been noted for quite some time but they should really be lobbied to have it off by default.  Esp. if you use the portable archives, every time you update to a newer version you need to remember to disable the settings again.

5454

General Software Discussion / Re: I just want to play my mp3 songs nicely with my car studio...

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 02, 2011, 03:54 PM »

Another approach may be to drop the files one by one on a player and depending on the sound, move them to folders categorized by the loudness or volume.  Then batch adjust each folder. I doubt any automatic method in any free or low-priced software is going to batch analyze a whole slew of files and bring them into the same ballpark.

5455

General Software Discussion / Re: I just want to play my mp3 songs nicely with my car studio...

« Last post by MilesAhead on February 02, 2011, 01:20 AM »

Have you tried Audacity?

http://manual.audaci...tle=Batch_Processing

Probably works as well as many of the paid audio programs.  Also I found, audacity aside, that ripping audio to .wma if your car stereo supports it, can fit more songs on a disc with the same quality.  The same audio that I ripped to .mp3 @320 sounded as good or better ripping to .wma @192.

I'm new to Audacity myself, so I have no expert usage advice. I had some video with horrible audio tracks, as in screeching loud, that I had to tone down.  Audacity did the trick. I just messed around with it with maybe a peek or 2 at the manual.

5456

General Software Discussion / Re: Mother of all video player discussion threads

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 31, 2011, 09:12 PM »

One additional factor, just to add to the confusion, is that 3rd party systems, e.g. video drivers/systems like Nvidia PureVideo, or video codecs like CoreAVC, can also enable GPU acceleration. So in some cases if you can configure a particular player to use a given codec to handle a particular format, you can gain acceleration even if the player itself doesn't natively support it. It's all entirely too complicated really.

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (January 31, 2011, 06:10 PM)

Seems like .mkv is supported and .m2ts isn't, even when it's just a remux. Perhaps it's because it's handled by Haali Media Splitter?  I dunno'.  Seems like SPlayer gives smoother playback.  When it doesn't say acceleration it will often say EVR and play smoothly, so now I'm more confused than ever.  It plays back smoothly is the important thing I guess.

5457

General Software Discussion / Re: Mother of all video player discussion threads

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 31, 2011, 04:25 PM »

Another aspect is which player will give you GPU acceleration.  My dual core has an NVidia card but the onboard ram is only half what's needed to qualify as CUDA.  But even though Splash Lite grays out the hw acceleration setting, SPlayer has it and shows hw accel in the caption when playing some video types.

For underwhelming cards this can make the difference between smooth and stuttered playback.

5458

General Software Discussion / Re: The Cache?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 31, 2011, 04:14 PM »

NtfsMemoryUsage debunked? http://www.tweakhound.com/blog/?p=1164

I think Last access is actually disabled per default in Vista/7 majoMO

-Bamse (January 31, 2011, 02:32 PM)

It may vary with the Windows edition.  For Home Premium you may have to explicitly set it.

5459

General Software Discussion / Re: The Cache?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 30, 2011, 05:36 PM »

Also you can play around with ntfs file system cache using command line settings:

http://www.howtogeek...cache-size-in-vista/

running this command will tell you the current setting:

fsutil behavior query memoryusage

After setting this param a reboot is required.
(You change the setting by using "set" instead of "query")

5460

General Software Discussion / Re: Seeking advice on usenet and irc clients ...

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 28, 2011, 06:36 PM »

Gravity will download binaries.  But it's not optimized for large binary downloads.  Newsbin can download a 32 GB or larger video, run the par repair if needed and automatically unrar.

Readers like Gravity and Agent news reader are more tuned to download pictures and smaller binaries. Newsbin and Usenet Explorer don't choke on the multi-GB downloads. But you wouldn't want to use either for usenet discussion groups.  Gravity, Agent and similar clients are optimized for that purpose.  The binary capabilities are secondary. Just saves you from using another software to download photos.

5461

General Software Discussion / Re: Seeking advice on usenet and irc clients ...

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 27, 2011, 11:10 PM »

For usenet client, text mode discussion group I'd recommend Gravity.

http://mpgravity.sourceforge.net/

It should run on Linux under Wine.

Gravity is very similar to the Agent newsreader UI.  I think you can do everything with Gravity that you can do with the paid version of Agent.

For binary newsreader I'd recommend either Newsbin or Usenet Explorer.

irc I haven't used to any extent in ages so I'll refrain from suggesting any clients.

5462

General Software Discussion / Re: Splash Lite 1.60

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 27, 2011, 08:05 PM »

One pleasant surprise with SPlayer is how good it is at automatically downloading subs for Asian videos. This could take a lot of the frustration out of watching Asian dramas. Often by the time the last episode is finally subbed I don't care anymore.

From now on if I can get the vid SPlayer is my first search tool for the soft subs. So far I haven't been able to figure out where it's searching. I thought there was a config to add sub sites to a search list but I can't seem to find it anymore.  Anything that makes subs easier is good with me though.

5463

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: DVDFab DVD Copy *GAOTD*

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 27, 2011, 07:56 PM »

Thanks for the info. I was just curious as licensing terms seem to ambiguate like a virus these days.

(I know... "ambiguate" ain't in the dictionary.... yet but I have faith both it and "orientationize" will make it!) 

5464

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: DVDFab DVD Copy *GAOTD*

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 27, 2011, 04:04 PM »

if anyone downloaded earlier today - please redownload since they extended the license for 1 year 

-Bionic71 (January 27, 2011, 11:25 AM)

Is it just updates that quit after the alloted time, or the app itself stops functioning?

5465

General Software Discussion / Re: Splash Lite 1.60

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 27, 2011, 03:47 PM »

I got an "official" reply in the forum they have no intention of ever supporting PGS subs in the free version.  For spot checking subs I now use VLC 1.1.6 portable.  It displays both PGS subs and divx XSubs.  Seems to be more crash prone than prior to this subtitle support but I'm hoping it stabilizes soon.

Also I've found SPlayer very good on Windows7.  It gives me hw acceleration on the same video card Splash Lite doesn't think is good enough for gpu acceleration.  Seems fine for playing .mkv and .m2ts. I heard there was an issue with file type associations. I'm not sure if it's fixed or not. I launch using the SendTo menu just to be on the safe side.

There's a Splash Lite 1.61 but I haven't updated as I heard some of the features working in 1.6 are disabled. They are definitely pushing to the paid.

I did the paid version trial just to see if the PGS subs support worked.  Videos with PGS subs that displayed fine in VLC I saw no hint of in Splash.  So looks like I'm giving up on it unless they change direction.

Edit: another stumbling block to using Splash Lite on videos with PGS subs... it only supports text based subs.. .srt.  Many other players that don't support PGS will at least pick up idx/sub external files when named the same as the video or allow you to manually load them.  It's not difficult to export PGS sub streams and use BDSup2Sub to export idx/subs.  But it can be a real pain to OCR them into .srt.  The player should at least support idx/sub files.

5466

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 27, 2011, 12:52 AM »

I've used BlueDomino for years.  Perfect?, nah, but it works for me.

I have just done a test of domains I searched for (and found) about six months ago and all but one I checked are still available.  Does this pass the "squatter" test?

PS - When one is considering quotes pertaining to business and the general consumer populace, one must consider the wisdom of P.T. Barnum and what has also been attributed to him he never said.

-CodeTRUCKER (January 26, 2011, 03:34 PM)

Like "play it again Sam" in Casablanca, it's wrong, but it ain't goin' away.

Who you gonna' believe? Me or your own eyes?

edit: btw, one of the more interesting quotes is "no good deed goes unpunished."  Seems like about a dozen people have been credited with it.  Maybe it's occurred to so many people there's no way to nail it down.  The first guy may have been before the printing press.

5467

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 25, 2011, 07:50 PM »

^With all due respect, if that's Mr. Jobs attitude, it seems to be working brilliantly for Apple. 

-40hz (January 25, 2011, 05:25 PM)

Nothing succeeds like success.

5468

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 25, 2011, 05:02 PM »

I suspect he was hoping that "There's a sucker born every minute" would accelerate to multiple suckers per second.

5469

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: One-click shortcut to open Windows XP "wireless network connection" dialog

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 24, 2011, 10:11 PM »

I don't have WiFi enabled to even have the dialog. But you might find the applet code here:

http://dx21.com/codi...undll32/default.aspx

or on another similar reference.  Usually there's a clsid string in braces {} or there's an applet with .cpl extension.  Once you know which to bring up then you can wait and deliver a mouse click with AHK to click the appropriate tab or whatnot.

5470

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: tile open windows for given task in task bar

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 24, 2011, 10:08 PM »

But if you only need to tile/cascade windows from the same program, good news! Windows 7 gives you the tile/cascade options by Shift+right clicking the taskbar button!

-rsatrioadi (January 24, 2011, 12:41 AM)

I didn't think to try that one.  One reason I write little apps to do simple things is to get the same action in different Windows flavors.  Too taxing to remember all the nuances.  Maybe not if you're keyboard oriented.  But I like the mouse because I don't have to think(I sense a pattern developing with age but what can I do?) 

5471

Living Room / Re: Binary Registry Keys.... Editable? Readable? How?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 24, 2011, 09:55 PM »

Yeah WinSize2 is nice. I was considering rolling my own tray app to keep a list of window positions but found it already done with a nice config dialog.

Usually when I put anything in the registry, unless I'm using a 3rd party component, I'll use string data with key names that make it obvious what the value stands for.. like Left Top Width Height or whatever.

On the registry key deletion I'd just check it doesn't have some install registration data.  Every time I use CCleaner to clean the registry I have to remember to re-register my license key for Newsbin or a week later after I've totally forgotten about it the app will tell me my one week trial has expired.  Just an annoyance.

5472

Living Room / Re: Binary Registry Keys.... Editable? Readable? How?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 24, 2011, 05:18 PM »

The binary stuff could be in any arbitrary order.  Like left corner, right corner x y combos or left top right bottom.. plus other attributes.  A lot of trial and error potential.

This may work and be generally useful:

http://sourceforge.n...t/projects/winsize2/

Once you have a window sized and positioned the way you want, hit the hotkey while it's active to store the info.  After that, the first time that window pops up it's set to that position/size.

I've been using it for a few weeks.  About the only side effect is now and then a dialog box or child window comes up behind the application.  But that's pretty rare. Seems very stable.

Plus it's free.

5473

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 24, 2011, 02:56 AM »

The problem is that squatters and domainers have already scooped up so many domains, that you're stuck trying to find *something* that's not already gone, which is a long process of trial and error

Same thing tends to be true for company names when you go to register. You think up something cool, then look through the list only to find there's 20 company names that could be confused with your candidate.   

-MilesAhead (January 23, 2011, 10:54 PM)

+1  Been there more than a few times myself.

It used to drive me nuts until I allowed myself to realize there are an awful lot of clever and creative people out there.

And if it's true I'm one of them - it merely makes me one of many.

 

-40hz (January 24, 2011, 01:06 AM)

For some reason a Steve Jobs quote comes to mind.  Something about there being too many smart people out there?

5474

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 23, 2011, 10:54 PM »

The problem is that squatters and domainers have already scooped up so many domains, that you're stuck trying to find *something* that's not already gone, which is a long process of trial and error

Same thing tends to be true for company names when you go to register. You think up something cool, then look through the list only to find there's 20 company names that could be confused with your candidate.   

5475

General Software Discussion / Re: Checking for available domain name = giving it away?

« Last post by MilesAhead on January 23, 2011, 03:32 PM »

If you crash badly enough on a motorcycle that a helmet might save your life, you'll probably end up in a wheelchair for the rest of your life - better off dead, then.

-f0dder (January 23, 2011, 10:59 AM)

But sitting in a wheelchair, it's probable that I'd still be able to do coding, so I'd better be alive to prove that

-Ath (January 23, 2011, 12:47 PM)

If it's a powered wheelchair you may have to wear a helmet.