Recent Posts

6376

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early beta: Quicksilver Like launcher

« Last post by tomos on December 18, 2011, 03:03 PM »

ah okay,
then it would be better spelt like one of these:

• Q-tapult
• Quetapult
• Queuetapult
• Q Tapult

you're getting into weirdly-spelt-name territory there - from the point of view of ease of remembering, I wouldn't recommend any of those - but I dont know how important that aspect is to you?

you could also play on the Q-t thing and spell it cuteapult or cuetapult - either of those would work better than the "Q" versions imo

edit/ i dunno though...

6377

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early beta: Quicksilver Like launcher

« Last post by tomos on December 18, 2011, 02:20 PM »

do you mean Qatapult ?
I think the Q works fine (with a vowel after it at any rate), it generally (always?) gets pronounced as a hard C or like a K.

btw forgot to say: I like it

6378

General Software Discussion / Re: Make a music mix for burning on audio disc - software?

« Last post by tomos on December 18, 2011, 05:38 AM »

haven't done this for quite some time.. but i used Burrrn back then when i needed to burn to an audio CD. you can also check out this tutorial.

-lanux128 (December 12, 2011, 01:00 AM)

Burrrn looks nice, also works with flac (which I dont use).
But it uses Windows Media Player to play the tracks. Or tries to - WMP couldnt find them
Which leads me to belatedly reply to techidave...

can't you do all that with Windows Media Player?

-techidave (December 11, 2011, 04:48 PM)

because of it's bad reputation in the past, I've never even tried Windows Media Player till recently. I moved to Windows 7 this summer so I thought I'd give it a go - I dont know what it does but it starts going mad doing "things" as soon as I start it. Trying to index all my music I think (but IIRC also trying to download stuff related to the music) but it didnt ask me what I wanted so I just closed it down & didnt bother again.
Lately I tried to use it again, was unhappy (cant remember why now) and closed it down. It was not showing in the tray but after a while I noticed that something was hogging cpu - it turns out it was still running - it showed in task manager, so I killed it.
Burrrn, as I say tried to use it, but it couldnt find the file - Trout (Skwire) had no problem finding the same file from the same playlist, CDBurnerXP had no problem either, so I reckon I'll continue avoiding WMP...

6379

General Software Discussion / Re: SoftMaker Office 2012 BETA testing

« Last post by tomos on December 18, 2011, 05:16 AM »

Ashampoo are offering an upgrade for 30 euros, they're not offering the pro version.

6380

Living Room / Re: Elvis Sighting

« Last post by tomos on December 16, 2011, 03:20 AM »

Where?!?!  Where??

-J-Mac (December 15, 2011, 10:55 PM)

Spoiler

6381

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: use key to constrain mouse movements to horizontal/vertical

« Last post by tomos on December 15, 2011, 05:19 AM »

@TaoPhoenix, that's actually a really nice effect -
also looks good reduced (or enlarge the thumbnail onscreen), it gets nice and blurry then...

I've never actually used it for drawing (only for dragging :p) and true, it "doesn't"

6382

Living Room / Re: Ground Hog Day - failed system image restoring yet again

« Last post by tomos on December 14, 2011, 02:01 AM »

^

re testing an image - do you (people) mean to do a test restore to the actual windows partition that was backed up?

6383

Screenshot Captor / Re: GUI improvement for changing between edit & create objects? (SC)

« Last post by tomos on December 14, 2011, 01:20 AM »

Mind if I use that in my next presentation? It's so much clearer than my usual output 

-cranioscopical (December 13, 2011, 01:36 PM)

it just kind of "evolved" like that...

6384

Screenshot Captor / GUI improvement for changing between edit & create objects? (SC)

« Last post by tomos on December 13, 2011, 11:32 AM »

How to change from edit mode to create object mode: click on the white arrow icon with the red "O"- if it says "select mode" I can select an object - if that object is an arrow, the arrow 'pane' will open, I can then edit it. If I click the arrow icon again, nothing shows, if I then click on e.g. Arrow icon, I can create new arrows.

~
If you look in the spoiler below you can read my struggle to figure this out (I know - I could well have read more of the manual)

Could this be made more intuitive somehow?

As said in spoiler:
there is no visual indication (that I can see) that tells me which mode I'm in.

• Maybe that the arrow icon would change depending on which mode is active?
• and/or -
• Maybe the arrow icon ("Object select mode") could be part of a frame that frames all the object icons? (I like this idea a lot cause then I'd see it's importance. But dont know if it's possible.)

the struggle

I do this about once a year or less (and struggle each time with it):

Help says:
By default, after you add one object or text box, you will switch into object editing mode. If you want to draw many arrows at once you can find options for this in the preferences dialog.

In Preferences, I found the option
Switch to object selection mode after a new object is inserted
I deselected that - I made a new screenshot & it works. I can create loads of arrows.
But now I cant get into edit mode... aha, found it - if I close the arrow panel and reopen it I'm in edit mode again and but now I cant get back into create mode again.

So how do I (easily) move between creating an object and editing it and back to creating an object?

With apologies - I'm figuring this out as I go along -
[Sort-of Solution]
I have to click on the White cursor with the red Opera style "O" icon to toggle edit and create modes - I still find this incredibly confusing as there is no visual indication (that I can see) that tells me which mode I'm in.
I just keep clicking that and the arrow icon and eventually I get one mode or the other...

I click on arrow icon, and check which mode it's in by trying it out.

Okay, the best I can find is to click on the white arrow - if it says "select mode" I can select an object - if it's an arrow, the arrow 'pane' will open.
If I click it again, nothing shows, if I then click on e.g. Arrow icon, I can create new arrows.

If I'm missing something please let me know

6385

General Software Discussion / Re: AdBlock Plus To Not Block All Ads

« Last post by tomos on December 13, 2011, 08:54 AM »

I think Adblock has had trouble blocking the Wikipedia campaign boxes lately. I think you can sludge your way with things like ElementHider (spelling?) but still, it's an ad,and it's ugly, go away.

-TaoPhoenix (December 12, 2011, 05:37 PM)

I just checked, and AdBlockPlus in my FF is still blocking those ugly ads on Wikipedia.

-IainB (December 13, 2011, 08:14 AM)

hasn't here for a while

6386

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Stickies review

« Last post by tomos on December 13, 2011, 02:42 AM »

Thanks TaoPhoenix

btw

I vaguely tested Win7's version

-TaoPhoenix (December 12, 2011, 06:10 PM)

has windows 7 got stick-it note functionality ?

6387

General Software Discussion / Re: AdBlock Plus To Not Block All Ads

« Last post by tomos on December 13, 2011, 02:32 AM »

I'll probably stick with it, see how it goes. I often have tried allowing adds for sites I like, but if they have blinking/"non-static" adds I block again.

Their plan is to allow:

• Static advertisements only (no animations, sounds or similar)
• Preferably text only, no attention-grabbing images
• At most one script that will delay page load (in particular, only a single DNS request)

Would be nice if I could either

• 1] block everything by default, with the option to allow "acceptable"
• 2] allow acceptable by default, with option to block all

EDIT/ #2 above is new default


as I say, will see how it goes...

6388

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip Zip: Wow!

« Last post by tomos on December 12, 2011, 03:28 PM »

^
^ @ 300 to 450 euros -
it can look as sexy as it wants, I've better ideas for my money :p

6389

General Software Discussion / Re: Make a music mix for burning on audio disc - software?

« Last post by tomos on December 12, 2011, 02:40 PM »

I hadnt noticed that Burrrn also has a player,
and replay gain
Will try.

6390

General Software Discussion / Re: Make a music mix for burning on audio disc - software?

« Last post by tomos on December 12, 2011, 01:59 PM »

CDBurnerXP will preserve playlist order for Audio CD but not for a Data CD with .mp3 files.
However if you select Audio Disc from the start dialog it will automatically convert .mp3 or .flac to audio and then burn an Audio CD.

http://cdburnerxp.se...p/Audio/compileaudio

-MilesAhead (December 11, 2011, 02:20 PM)

wow, it looks to me like I can do it all from within cdburnerxp -
it has a (very basic i.e. play/pause) audio player (only seems to work from the context menu, which is fine once you figure that out), I can drag files to a list and sort manually. Will let you know if successful

On second thoughts, if I'm going to do this more than once, I'm really going to need a decent player to move around/listen to the tracks properly ;-)


Re Winamp -
free version will burn @ 2X - I like burning slow for better quality, but that's too much
[edit]  but as you suggest in combination with winamp could be good [/edit]

6391

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip Zip: Wow!

« Last post by tomos on December 12, 2011, 09:17 AM »

I presume they would work with computer type speakers as well ? (they're only advertised for headfones).
or maybe not worth getting unless the speakers are good? - I havent a clue about this stuff...

-tomos (December 11, 2011, 12:36 PM)

Probably would not hurt for computer speaker use.
Except that as computer speakers generally have their own built in amps, you're not gaining much except for possibly a cleaner signal.
Even so, very few computer type speakers would be able to reveal much of that signal quality anyway (my 2 cents )

-NigelH (December 11, 2011, 09:28 PM)

I know what you're saying (about quality of speakers) but e.g. I currently have an old ipod connected to 2.1 computer speakers (they not at all bad - with sub-woofer/bassbox) and I cant get much volume nor bass with it - the speakers are underperforming so it's gotta be the ipods fault. I was considering getting the sansa clip for use the same way until I reread the thread and SB was saying it wasnt great for connecting to speakers - hence the interest in your post about Fiio amps.

6392

General Software Discussion / Make a music mix for burning on audio disc - software?

« Last post by tomos on December 11, 2011, 01:45 PM »

I think something along these line was discussed not so long ago but I couldnt find it.

I want to make a few mixes from mp3 files, and burn to CD (audio disc) - all on Windows 7.
On XP I used use Media Jukebox from JRiver (http://www.jriver.com/mj/) but i heard some dodgy reports here lately about it messing up tags (and even though it had a very easy GUI, I found it usable but buggy - that was about a year ago, I cant remember the version number but older than current).
Also on XP I briefly tried Media Monkey - I couldnt (figure out how to) do anything on it, but if you really recommend it I'll try again
Skwire's Trout is my player - but I even use that very little.

So what I need is a player where:

• I can select the files
• sort them manually
• create my mix
• then (if possible) I could burn from within the player - if not:
• I could use nero express to burn (or you're welcome to recommend something there too!)

6393

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip Zip: Wow!

« Last post by tomos on December 11, 2011, 12:36 PM »

If you're interested in boosting Clip output levels, the Fiio amps are very reasonably priced (especially the E6) - find some reviews.
Their low end amps E3, E5 and E6 at Amazon

-NigelH (December 11, 2011, 06:36 AM)

I presume they would work with computer type speakers as well ? (they're only advertised for headfones).
or maybe not worth getting unless the speakers are good? - I havent a clue about this stuff...

6394

General Software Discussion / Re: font/raster/vector/icons/logos/stockphotos/etc and generally design repositories

« Last post by tomos on December 10, 2011, 11:36 AM »

search for free fonts on dc link
(I thought there was more threads than that - but especially the stuff recommended by Smashing magazine is good.)

Vector Images:
http://vector-images.com/

6395

Living Room / Re: nice personal message just received from a new friend

« Last post by tomos on December 09, 2011, 12:30 PM »

awww,
I didnt inherit nothin

6396

Living Room / Re: google queries re new "2-step verification" / new style, etc

« Last post by tomos on December 08, 2011, 03:47 PM »

I don't get it.

-Deozaan (December 08, 2011, 02:58 PM)

"it" being my queries, or googles verification?
~ I'm just being a little contrary


I've only seen both these features offered in gmail in the last few weeks here (it's possible I had a shortish spell before that where I didnt use a browser to check mail). I guess they introduced them in the US first...

6397

Living Room / Re: Community outsourcing... Awesome idea

« Last post by tomos on December 08, 2011, 02:14 PM »

it's nice to see a bit of creativity!
I'd love to see more community orientated stuff going on in these troubled times - would help if governments encouraged it, but I guess they dont tend to think that way (e.g. I heard some interesting stuff lately about local currencies, and mutual credit systems - if they could be used, people wouldnt even need $$.)

6398

Living Room / Re: google queries re new "2-step verification" / new style, etc

« Last post by tomos on December 08, 2011, 07:40 AM »

Sorry I didnt phrase the second query so clearly :-)

I meant: anyone know when are they going to force the new UI on us?

6399

Living Room / google queries re new "2-step verification" / new style, etc

« Last post by tomos on December 07, 2011, 10:58 PM »

1] Anyone tried out the new "2-step verification" ?
How was it for you? ;-)

2] anyone know when they are going to force the new style [edit ~ I mean the new UI] on us? (I'll need to do support for some older-beginner-relatives when that happens - probably better to just make the change before it's forced on me, but having a time-frame would help). Edit - I see they've already forced it on one of my accounts, it's possible that it's being phased in as opposed to all at once...

6400

Official Announcements / Re: Cody got into the electrical cables again .. Server went down on 12/8/11

« Last post by tomos on December 07, 2011, 10:28 PM »

you got your edit in there just before mine...