Recent Posts

6001

Living Room / Re: PREY trailer - looks funky

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 21, 2006, 04:57 AM »

Excuse my ignorance but does anyone over the age of 12 find this sort of game fun - looks pretty repetitive and boring to me. Maybe its a boy thing ...

6002

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Encryption software

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 21, 2006, 04:50 AM »

TrueCrypt is very nice - seems to work smoothly.

The Outer/Hidden volume bit is interesting.

Imagine making an image file (the outer volume) and then inside that make another image file (this time not visible at all, the hidden volume). The idea is that if someone manages to hack into your outer image file they won't even be able to see the inner hidden image where the sensitive data is stored. The creation system automates the making of this layered volume system by checking hidden volume when prompted.

Having said that, in the scenario they describe on the website (someone breaking your legs to get the password) I'm sure it might occur to them that you may have used a hidden image and so break your arms too to get that password!

6003

DonationCoder Projects / Re: DC Homebrew Mini-CMS Discussion

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 07:14 PM »

I'm still catching up on this thread, i'm just posting to report i can't see the images Carol posted..
I think it might be related to permissions (because when i click them, i get the "you are not allowed here" error).

-jgpaiva (May 20, 2006, 06:59 PM)

Strange - I use the inline thumbnails - I'll change them to standard pics ... have a look now.

6004

Developer's Corner / Re: What happens to the code when the programmer dies?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 07:12 PM »

Alternatively give it to Creative Corp and wait for Apple to bring it out in their next product (or vice versa depending on which court you attend).

6005

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Encryption software

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 07:09 PM »

TrueCrypt looks really nice. It is particularly good that you can use it without having to install the software.

6006

Living Room / Re: World's worst pop-up dialogs

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 05:56 PM »

IrmaIsfot, ROFLOL I love the last two there !!

6007

Developer's Corner / Re: What happens to the code when the programmer dies?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 05:54 PM »

I am making arrangements now to make sure that should something happen to me all of the DC software will stay free or go open source, and the site will continue to be run as it is.

-mouser (May 20, 2006, 05:27 PM)

More importantly .... who gets your cat ?

6008

Living Room / Re: Overcoming email checking addiction

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 05:51 PM »

We need a support group.  Email addiction anonymous.

-JeffK (May 20, 2006, 03:56 PM)

What a great idea ... I'll email you about it.

6009

Living Room / Re: new alt.comp.freeware usenet thread with criticism of DonationCoder

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 04:02 AM »

His anger probably extends to "oh deerie me that makes me a little vexed ... now let's solve 30 new problems before lunch so that I can curb this tantrum ..."

6010

General Software Discussion / Re: a backup solution that uses winRAR

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 20, 2006, 03:59 AM »

Just that some things don't work as you might expect and some things don't work at all (looking at particular files and file types) - I'm sure I read there were restrictions but I have gone back for a second look and can't find it now!

There are certainly restrictions on how you restore partitions etc. and you are restricted by having to create partitions at least as big as the one you backed up (even though the partition may only be 10% full) which is a little irritataing and could potentially cause problems if you have had to alter partition sizes and then retrieve an older backup.

You also have to download BartPE and create a bootable rescue disc tailored with this app. in order to restore images without a working copy of windows (or to restroe your windows partition) ... don't forget to get this sorted out in advance and check it works. BartPE is a great tool but sometimes the plugins for it can be a little flaky!

6011

General Software Discussion / Re: Difference between PCL5e, PCL6, and Postscript printer drivers?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 06:48 PM »

PCL was originally HP's answer to Adobe's PS format and was in direct competition.

Gradually PS became dominant and now some of HP's printer include support for both.

6012

Living Room / Re: Apple in the dock for iPod UI patent infringement !!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 06:45 PM »

And now the plot thickens ...

http://news.zdnet.co...300.html?tag=nl.e589

6013

General Software Discussion / Re: a backup solution that uses winRAR

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 06:19 PM »

the problem that I can see with windows backup is that you cannot search in the backup (like the catalog option in genie backup). Or can you?

-urlwolf (May 19, 2006, 05:03 PM)

You can certainly look at the folders and files in the backup. Just double click the backup file, go to the restore tab and use double clik to open up each layer of the tree in the archive. It shows folders and files at each level.

You can restore anything you want either to its original location or somewhere else if you want.

OK it isn't as slick and feature rich as some apps but it works and its free.

BTW, I like genie backup less and less each day. Very buggy.

What bugs have you found ???

Is the compressed file produced by windows backup a simple zip file?

No it is Windows .BKF format (which has three levels of compression)

I haven't tried recovering a backup from dixml.

I don't think they store all the partition in xml. What they do is similar to the .CUE and .BIN formats for music. The partition is the .BIN, and the xml tells you where each file/directory starts and ends. Which is very smart, if that's what they do.

From the Drive Image XML home page ... it says "Images are stored in XML files, allowing you to process them with 3rd party tools. Never again be stuck with a useless backup!"

It is worth reading the FAQs etc. on the site because there are quite a few restrictions on what you can and can't do with DIXML which aren't immediately obvious or intuitive.

6014

Developer's Corner / Re: The Hunt for the Best CMS

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 06:01 PM »

4) Nope You'd pretty much have to port the existing system to the DNN/ASP.NET way of doing things.
5) Nope - ASP.NET - and you'd need a Windows box for it

-Renegade (May 19, 2006, 05:16 PM)

Dumb question (which I guess I know the answer to) but I presume ASP.NET is restricted to running on Windows Servers?

If this is the case why would anyone really develop for it when the majority of servers these days seem to be based on Apache and Linux?

Aside ...

I have just installed the Windows IIS server on my box (just to play with setting up a server to see how it works) and can't even open webpages in firefox - I have to use Internet Explorer for some reason that I don't understand. If I try and use Firefox I just get either an error (page not available type thing) or else get asked to log in - which given that it isn't set up with user names and passwords is a bit difficult - I have set it up to use Windows authentication but the firefox login prompt doesn't accept any of the windows user ids and passwords???

6015

General Software Discussion / Re: a backup solution that uses winRAR

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 05:51 PM »

Windows backup may be proprietary but it has been included in ever version of Windows ... I would be very surprised if it wasn't included in future versions of Windows and backward compatible.

6016

General Software Discussion / Re: Difference between PCL5e, PCL6, and Postscript printer drivers?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 05:46 PM »

PCL is a scripting language for printers (just like Postscript was designed to be for other printers). PCL5e and PCL6 are version 5e and 6 of the code generated.

Depends what your printer supports ... if it supports both it probably doesn't matter too much. Manufacturers often make generic drivers to suit a range of printers. I'd guess the manual may tell you.

If your printer supports PCL5e and you install drivers with PCL6 then there may be some commands sent to the printer that aren't in the PCL5e command set. At best you will get pages printing with a few errors, at worst the printouts will terminate with an error.

If you aren't sure I'd go for PCL5e as I would be surprised if PCL6 wasn't backward compatible with earlier versions.

6017

Best Firewall / Re: Software firewall issues in general...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 12:01 PM »

I am in a similar position, but I work on the principle that when I install it then it has a lot to learn. Ideally it is good to install this sort of thing on a clean install of windows then you know there is not rubbish on your system for certain - or at least do a thorough spyware/trojan/antivirus check before installing a firewall.

Basically I allow most things unless it is something that is very unexpected or I know the program doesn't need to connect to the internet in which case I just block it.

If I recognise a program and I have installed it on my system I have already showed a degree of trust, therefore I don't have any reason to block access if it needs access. For example if the only thing an app needs to access the internet for is to check automatically for updates I tend to block it and if possible turn of the automatic update option and then check manually occasionally at the website.

I can't really see the point in being too anal about it - if you allow an app some access to the internet you may as well give it full access as far as I can see 'cos if it is going to do naughty things it will probably have figured out how to do it anyway by bypassing the outbound firewall.

6018

Best Firewall / Re: Software firewall issues in general...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 10:03 AM »

Have you tried the latest version of Outpost? It has an automatic training mode which applies suitable rules to most common applications as they try to connect to the internet.

I reinstalled it on my system a few days ago  (after a complete format and start again session) and most of the prompts have died down now again. Don't forget to tick the "remember this in future" box when allowing known apps to have access and they quickly stop coming.

I have also reinstalled AppGuard and RegDefender on my system which work in a similar way - you have to set up rules to allow apps to run and allow and apps to change registry settings etc. For the first time I can actually stop the "tooleaky" test.

It's quite funny actually - when you defeat TooLeaky it doesn't assume you are protected - it assumes their own server is down or your internet connection is bust !!! LOL

6019

Developer's Corner / Re: Speech Recognition for Programmers - Tell it what to do

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 08:50 AM »

Fair enough - I misunderstood your original comment. I didn't realise the source code wasn't included - I thought you were complaining that it wasn't installable on Linux.

Don't really know enough about it but I would have thought it would be non-trivial to write apps that can be compiled on Linux and Windows that are specifically designed to drive the sound system.

6020

DonationCoder Projects / Re: DC Homebrew Mini-CMS Discussion

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 06:41 AM »

I may be naive but I think that it shouldn't be too hard to produce a CMS like this from scratch -- here are a few shots to show how it works ...

Basically each "Journey" is set up as a set of pages. In terms of what you want to do this could be analagous to a user having a set of pages or a particular section of the website (eg. Mouser's software).

The "journey" has a management page where pages can be added, edited, deleted and previewed: like this ...



Clicking Edit for a page takes you to a simple layout for the page where you fill in the details:



Notice the main text section has a [W] icon which you click to paste in Word documents from the clipboard - these are processed to retain fonts etc. but remove all pointless tags and Word metadata.

Finally the page as previewed looks like this ...



It has the advantage that it really is simple to use, it's secure because people don't need access to any web resources to use it, and in the mylearning site no pages are made 'live' until they have been checked by their admin/moderator or whatever.

From the user's point of view it is very simple - they just type a document either on screen or better in an editor and paste it in.

6021

DonationCoder Projects / Re: DC Homebrew Mini-CMS Discussion

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 04:18 AM »

I can't see how it could be more rigid - the contributor has very little say in how the pages are laid out - just what fonts they want to use in the text. Page layouts are identical with the exception of a few optional templates of where you put images.

6022

DonationCoder Projects / Re: DC Homebrew Mini-CMS Discussion

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 04:12 AM »

The site I am producing stuff on for my local museum uses quite a nice format. It isn't useable here unless you want to use ASP and it may be bespoke. Basically each user (museum in this case) can login and add page sets (learning journeys in this sites case). The pages are added via a simple webform which includes fields for the main text and extra fields for links, graphics, videos, downloads etc. to be included.

The nice thing is that the main page text can be typed in manually or in any version of Word (using normal text formatting options but not graphics) and then pasted into an applet which strips out all the redundant MS tags etc. but retains text formatting. A standard template is then applied to the pages as it is added.

I'm not suggesting Word is necessarily the ideal thing to use but an editor that is cross platform and allows text formatting would be good. Pages could be edited and stored off line and then simply pasted into the standard format.

If you want to see and example of what it looks like go to http://www.mylearnin...id=49&jpageid=20

Technically the site isn't live yet (you just get a holding page on the main domain page) so it is a bit rough around the edges and my pages aren't yet published (I still have to actually type a lot of them).

It is a very simple system that anyone can use and may not be too hard to develop in house so it is tailored to what you want. Plus it could then be published as a simple CMS for others to use.

6023

Developer's Corner / Re: the übergenerator for htaccess

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 03:59 AM »

Hey that's a great find - almost makes it all make sense (almost )

6024

Developer's Corner / Re: Speech Recognition for Programmers - Tell it what to do

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 19, 2006, 03:56 AM »

The .zip archive of VoiceCode that I downloaded contained a bunch of .exe and one .msi file: hardly, what I call open source.

Since when has open source meant cross platform?

6025

Post New Requests Here / Re: Encryption software

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 18, 2006, 07:07 PM »

Have a look at http://www.ghostsecu...php?page=cryptosuite which is good and is used from the shell menu.