Recent Posts

651

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« Last post by urlwolf on September 29, 2008, 01:13 PM »

urlwolf, as you wrote earlier Office 2007 can now run via Wine. Here's a thread specifically on Onenote 2007 under Wine in Ubuntu: http://ubuntuforums....wthread.php?t=744743 . The core seems ok, but some features do not work. I haven't tried it yet myself, but plan to do so sometime. If it runs well enough, and especially if there are no problems saving/opening Onenote content across the "OS border", then I will probably commit to Onenote as my primary notetaking tool. If you or anyone else here has by now tried it then please post your impressions here.

-Nod5 (July 27, 2008, 06:10 PM)

Hi Nod5,

That's great to hear. I'll be curious to see how well it works.
Unfortunately I cannot say I'm moving to linux full time.
The main reasons are:
1- PDF display is bad. I spend most of my day looking at pdfs, and this is a showstopper
2- hardware support takes a fight, and sometimes you lose. I got an external USB soundcard (Tascam US122L). There are notes to make it work, but I don't want to risk spending several hours recompiling things and have a half assed solution, if any.
3- Mostly any program for any category is inferior to the windows alternative. This is just normal. But why settle for a worse option? This is painfully evident if, as most of us have, you spent a long time looking for the best of the best under win.

So right now I cannot justify the change. I use Linux for programming, and XP under VMWare for everything else.

652

General Software Discussion / Re: Warning. XP service pack 3 hosed my mouse settings.

« Last post by urlwolf on September 27, 2008, 03:13 PM »

Thanks, solved.
I'll just use no drivers at all.

653

General Software Discussion / South Park Mac vs. PC

« Last post by urlwolf on September 27, 2008, 02:17 PM »

http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=Id_kGL3M5Cg
http://www.youtube.c...m/watch?v=0-22EpQOm8



advise by jgpaiva: may be NSFW (as southpark usually is )
edit by jgpaiva: added screenshot and advise

654

General Software Discussion / Warning. XP service pack 3 hosed my mouse settings.

« Last post by urlwolf on September 27, 2008, 01:14 PM »

Warning. XP service pack 3 hosed my mouse settings.
I have a logitech MX610 and aIBM ultranav keyboard with mousepad. They seem to be conflicting, and both companies ignore each other.

When  I try to open the mouse settings by control panel > mouse I get:


Then:


Do you have any idea how to fix this? in a 1920 x 1200 screen the default mouse speed is too slow. I'm struggling here

655

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 26, 2008, 02:20 PM »

BUT THERE'S MORE:  I read a couple months back that Microsoft has yet another OS in the works, to follow eventually on the heels of Windows 7, which is expected to be out within a year or two.  This new OS has built right into it the facility to maintain core files ONLINE, with synchronized dumps back onto whatever computers one uses.  Fabulous idea.

-TomColvin (September 26, 2008, 10:04 AM)

This is what I'd expect an OS to do nowadays. A pity that it's M$ who implements it first.
I'm sure it'll be copied.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this should be a core OS thing. I'm also scared that M$ could have control over my files in the cloud though.

656

General Software Discussion / Re: FF and Gmail users: is there any way to assign a shortcut to 'compose message'?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 25, 2008, 04:19 PM »

Thanks app;
In my side of things, that link is not really very efficient, because it shows the 'loading Gmail' progress bar. If I have to wait a few secs everytime I send an email...

Well, one thing I noticed is that FF loads gmail a lot faster than Opera.

cmpm: your solution works, but it takes a while to load too. Same problem. If you click compose on a window that has Gmail open already the text box is instantly up. Not if you use the link.

657

General Software Discussion / FF and Gmail users: is there any way to assign a shortcut to 'compose message'?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 22, 2008, 12:01 PM »

This is for FF and Gmail users only: Is there any way to assign a shortcut to 'compose message'? I mean if you are not on the gmail tab; I know that c is 'compose'. But what if I'm in some other tab and I want to send a msg really quick?

Thanks!

658

General Software Discussion / Re: dpc latency checker: interesting if you plan to do serious Audio/video

« Last post by urlwolf on September 21, 2008, 03:32 PM »

yksyks:
Yes it was the wlan card!
I can't believe how careless dell is with its own hardware (the wireless card is made by Dell). This was a recent driver: 09-2007.
I rolled back the drivers to the ones Microsoft provides (ancient, 2006). Still gives me some red bars, but a lot less.

Disabling the wireless card is the only solution. I have an ugly cable all over the floor to my laptop, thanks to stupid Dell.

Never again will I buy Dell. Maybe not even a PC.

659

Living Room / Re: [NSFW Humor]: The funnier side of Mac vs. PC

« Last post by urlwolf on September 21, 2008, 07:05 AM »

So it won't mix your fav's who don't do business with Apple? Maybe PayolaMixer would be a more accurate name for their process;-)

I've always disliked Gates less than Jobs. He's more upfront about being evil and controlling.

I found this in the musicIP forums, and had to laugh.

Btw, what a great app musicIP is, and what a pity none of the big players can see it.

660

General Software Discussion / intellicomplete worked on FF2, but cannot find caret in FF3. Anyone knows why?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 20, 2008, 04:27 PM »

Hmm,
Intellicomplete worked on FF2, but cannot find caret in FF3. Anyone knows why? And a workaround would be great.
Sometimes I get it to work;
I think on my office comp it does find the prompt. Which makes me wonder.
Anyone using intellicomplete here? Does it work in FF3 for you?

661

General Software Discussion / Re: Any Lynx(text based browser) lover-user?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 20, 2008, 05:47 AM »

by the way if you like text-only browsers you can try links, elinks, and links2. They do CSS (to a extent) and frames as well. But gothic actually likes lynx better.

662

General Software Discussion / Re: Any Lynx(text based browser) lover-user?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 20, 2008, 05:43 AM »

hehe, wait till Gothic sees this post
He's Lynx's nb 1 user.

663

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 18, 2008, 01:12 PM »

I guess it takes less time to configure SFFS than to change the entire OS
@cmpm. thanks for the resources.
I have my own server so I'll sync to that, no need for a third party (besides, I prefer not to upload important stuff like working papers or code to a place I have no control over).

664

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 18, 2008, 11:25 AM »

The first OS that solves the synch problem gets my vote.
I'm serious. I'm sick of not having the latest version of each file, or not being sure.

I'm mailing files back and forth because I'm too lazy to set up SFFS and run all the tests needed, plus I know sooner or later I'll overwrite something valuable.

665

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 18, 2008, 06:43 AM »

@grorgy:
yes, large collections that change little with time (i.e., music, papers) are a pain because scanning them for changes takes a lot of time and HD activity.

How are macs faring in this business? I have heard good things about time machine... nothing about synchrization.

666

General Software Discussion / Do you keep two computers synchronized? i.e. work + home. If so, how?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 17, 2008, 11:06 AM »

Do you keep two computers synchronized?

I think this is a common situation nowadays; a modern OS should consider it as an usage case and make provision for it. But alas, no OS does!

I want to have my entire 'data' partition synchronized at work + home.
Ideally more than 2 computerx should be possible.

The idea I have in mind is to have a central server that contains the latest copy of everything, and then clients that grab stuff from the server on a timely basis (e.g., hourly).

I'm planning on using SFFS, it's ... flexible; but it's a pain! You have to estimate which areas are the most active and should be copied to the server... and which areas are inactive and not worth monitoring.

Of course, everything can go horribly wrong and you may have an older copy overwrite a newer one. This takes careful planning, and to tell you the truth, I'll never be sure.

I'd love to get to push one button, and make sure all computers are synchronized, but the reality of it is that it's really dangerous and hard to achieve.

Anyone having such a setup working?
How did you do it?

Thanks!

667

General Software Discussion / Re: the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by urlwolf on September 15, 2008, 08:32 AM »

[urlwolf]: the killer feature is right now plugins.

__________________
urlwolf, you also mentioned the semantic web. If/when that ever comes about, we will evolve to the next level as a species.

-zridling (September 15, 2008, 06:49 AM)

Hehe, I hope you are right. I'm working full-time on making the semantic web work so if it nevers comes around, you have someone to (partly) blame

668

General Software Discussion / Re: the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by urlwolf on September 15, 2008, 08:30 AM »

I disagree.

Key things to support my case:

(1) Internet Explorer users outnumber Firefox even with it's plugin
(2) A better out of the box program with the same level of extensions would have equalled or surpassed Firefox (Flock userbase doesn't even scratch Firefox userbase)
(3) Google Chrome would not have gained marketshare this fast even with all the marketing if people thought plugins were a killer app.

This doesn't mean plugins aren't great but in the words of someone I can't remember and someone who I'm not sure I'm quoting correctly "Firefox is more of a Web App but when I need a browser, I look elsewhere."

The killer application requirements are still:

(a) Support for most if not all sites
(b) Speed
(c) Stability
(d) Don't redesign the wheel too much at first glance or the users will run away from it.
(e) If things don't work well, make sure your users can easily find a way to link a functioning app to your application. (IETab, Open in Opera/FF/etc, Customize which RSS Feeder will be used, Customize which Mail Client will be used, etc.)
(f) Listen to your users before the opposition steals your ideas.
(g) Redefine the core basics and steal the beachhead from under your opposition's niche.

-Paul Keith (September 15, 2008, 08:16 AM)

[/QUOTE]

Agreed. (a) and (f) are particularly bad in Opera right now. (b) and (c) are particularly good.

The problem is that, considering the huge amount of plugins, one is bound to find one that one cannot live without, and that's bye bye for non-plugin browsers!

Here's something very telling about (a). Chrome has better support for the current (broken) web as it stands right now, and Opera has been around for years...
http://my.opera.com/.../topic.dml?id=249930

669

General Software Discussion / the actual browser divide: plugins

« Last post by urlwolf on September 14, 2008, 08:05 AM »

Now that chrome is out, it seems that there's a new browser divide:
IE, FF and Chrome have plugin/extensions. (well, chrome in the future).

Opera, Safari and other webKit-based browsers don't.

This could be a big deal. Plugins are adding pretty outstanding functionality right now. Have you tried Gnosis?

Gnosis is a Firefox (3.0 and 2.0) and IE  plugin that automatically analyzes content as you read it and provides you with a variety of tools to explore the people, companies, places and things you’re reading about.
 

Really impressive.
 
Tip of the iceberg of what the semantic web can do and much smarter machines can get!

What I'm saying is: other than standards, 'real-life compatibility, speed, etc... the killer feature is right now plugins.

After seeing Gnosis, I'm having a hard time using Opera only. I want that functionality. And things will only get more interesting with time...

What do you think?

670

General Software Discussion / Re: Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

« Last post by urlwolf on September 14, 2008, 08:01 AM »

just a quick note.
I really like delicious bookmarks for FF, but!
Magnolia (similar to delicious) actually takes an snapshot of what you bookmark there, so you can see the page even if it's no longer available. JFYI.

671

General Software Discussion / Re: dpc latency checker: interesting if you plan to do serious Audio/video

« Last post by urlwolf on September 14, 2008, 07:53 AM »

Thanks yksyks.
I have a Dell 1390 WLAN minicard. Maybe not the same. I'm on XP also.

I don't get the crackling sound anyway. Don't fix if it ain't broke? But I do get plenty of red bars... Weird!

672

General Software Discussion / Re: dpc latency checker: interesting if you plan to do serious Audio/video

« Last post by urlwolf on September 14, 2008, 06:00 AM »

Update: I have not found the culprit after disabling most of the devices that I could disable. I'm stuck. I wonder if dpc is reliable. If it is, then XP is really bad for real-time stuff, my hardware is not out of this world (dell 1720).

673

General Software Discussion / dpc latency checker: interesting if you plan to do serious Audio/video

« Last post by urlwolf on September 14, 2008, 05:51 AM »

Just found dpc latency checker, a tiny program that tells you whether your current hardware would let you play media without skipping.

There are plenty of ways you can hose your hardware (installed drivers, programs, etc) and produce clipping and skipping.

My laptop right now shows plenty of red bars and I have no idea why. Sound is ok though.

674

Living Room / Re: How many countries represented here on DC ?

« Last post by urlwolf on September 09, 2008, 02:56 PM »

Spain/Germany.

675

General Software Discussion / Re: real reason chrome exist is to prevent microsoft from making a sucky browser

« Last post by urlwolf on September 08, 2008, 07:07 AM »

[Ehtyar]: The biggest WebKit based problem is its inability to render non-standards-compliant pages well.

But why go to that trouble? Web authoring software, including the pretty fantastic MS Expression Web, creates compliant W3C code. If you (not you personally) can't be bothered to compose a standards-compliant webpage/site, then Google shouldn't have to engineer around your mistakes.

-zridling (September 06, 2008, 11:34 PM)

Because kids build web pages (or parts of pages) too, and often with hand written code that isn't standards compliant.

Not to mention a ton of blogs customized by beginners.

And a browser should be able to handle one of the most beautiful sites I have ever visited. (read it all and you will understand why I say that)

With 63 Errors and 168 warnings on just the main page, it's a billion times better than it used to be, back when he hand coded it all himself.

Any browser that can't handle that site belongs in the trash.

-app103 (September 08, 2008, 04:01 AM)

App, I still cannot see why Bike Mike's site is your favorite.
I can relate to what he's doing, but not to the point of seeing it as one of the most beautiful sites on the web. Maybe one needs to understand multiple sclerosis to see why this is a feat?

Thanks