Recent Posts

6551

Post New Requests Here / Re: ”run and hide” function for MS Office shortcut bar

« Last post by Deozaan on May 23, 2010, 12:47 PM »

While I'm normally very loyal to software made by DonationCoder members, I tried mouser's Launchbar Commander and found that I preferred Free Launch Bar which is the free version of True Launch Bar.

Of course, this was years ago and now with Windows 7's way of handling the start menu (almost like FARR) and task bar (you can kind of make your own launch bars easily) I don't use any sort of launcher these days.

6552

Living Room / Re: What happened to my DC forum avatar?

« Last post by Deozaan on May 23, 2010, 12:31 PM »

But I still don't know why the avatar disappeared to begin with.

Probably hit the wrong frequency 

-cranioscopical (May 23, 2010, 11:46 AM)

It must be a sine.

6553

General Software Discussion / Re: Quick AVI Creator

« Last post by Deozaan on May 22, 2010, 12:58 AM »

Thanks to tireless work by Kieran Kunyha, Alex Giladi, Lamont Alston, and the Doom9 crowd, x264 can now produce Blu-ray-compliant video.  Extra special thanks to The Criterion Collection for sponsoring the final compliance test to confirm x264’s Blu-ray compliance.

With x264’s powerful compression, as demonstrated by the incredibly popular BD-Rebuilder Blu-ray backup software, it’s quite possible to author Blu-ray disks on DVD9s (dual-layer DVDs) or even DVD5s (single-layer DVDs) with a reasonable level of quality.  With a free software encoder and less need for an expensive Blu-ray burner, we are one step closer to putting HD optical media creation in the hands of the everyday user.

Not sure of all the implications of this, but it sounds like a game-changer to me.

-sajman99 (May 21, 2010, 01:25 PM)

Am I understanding that correctly? You can put a DVD5 or DVD9 in a Blu-Ray player and it will play with near-Blu-Ray quality video?

Sounds similar to what people did about 10 years ago, putting DVD-format movies on multiple VCDs to play them in their DVD player when writable DVDs and DVD burners were still on the expensive side.

6554

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 09:20 PM »

I've been thinking about it and I've come up with more solutions to the "presentation for a CEO" problem.

You could create a wave and then anything that isn't part of the "final document" would be inside private-replies (in the wave) that everybody except the CEO could see. Thus when the CEO opened the wave, all he would see is the clean project information.

If they implement a printing function, then this would be handy too, because then you could just have a "PrinterAccount" that never gets invited to the private waves, and you could just log in as the PrinterAccount to view the clean stuff and print it or make a presentation with it projected on the white screen.

Admittedly it's a bit of a hack, but it seems easier than having to deal with printing copies or exporting info that could be updated at the last minute, or having to create a separate document from scratch.

EDIT: I bet you could even get a bot that you invite to the wave (but not the private replies) which can parse all the information and export it to another document that's fit to print.

6555

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 09:09 PM »

It seems odd to me that you're arguing against these features, or at least against their necessity. Do you just not care, or do you actively think they're unnecessary? Have you actually tried to use Wave for the kinds of activities Google claims it's useful for? Because I have. And it's not. IMHO.

-JavaJones (May 21, 2010, 08:41 PM)

I wasn't intending to argue against an exporting feature. Wave has always seemed to be marketed as a solution for the inherent problems of separate hard-copies of documents, so to me taking a wave and turning it back into a piece of paper or a static document seemed to defeat the purpose of putting it on Wave in the first place.

I have not used it on a collaborate project, and I don't have to submit reports to a CEO (or anyone) for approval for what I do, so there were many things which I didn't consider. With your help, I now understand that there are cases where a hard-copy would be extremely useful, though I think part of the problem may be trying to adapt new technology to old ways, instead of creating new ways to use new technology. After all, there may be a solution that neither of us have imagined yet that doesn't involve exporting or printing.

When you present a project for approval to your CEO, do you show him all your notes and recordings of brainstorms and things like that? Of course not, hence the desire to eliminate the extra chatter, etc. And you don't expect your chalkboard or your (paper) notebook to export only the relevant information to a PowerPoint. So what do you do in a real-world environment when you're ready to turn the brainstorming notes and ideas into a presentation to get your project approved? My guess (since I haven't needed to do this, myself) is that you prepare a separate document for him which highlights the relevant information he needs to know to make a wise decision on whether or not to approve the project.

It might not be that difficult to have a brainstorming wave and then an official presentation wave. Or as the case may require, a brainstorming wave and then an official presentation document, such as PDF or PowerPoint. That's not so different from a real-life situation, is it?

Again, I'm not saying that I'm against the option to print or export. I just think since Wave is so new (and early in development) that we may not have fully considered what it was designed to do and how to properly use it.

I know I haven't.

6556

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 08:22 PM »

You shouldn't take my example as the all-inclusive uses for Wave. I think this video explains my point pretty well:

6557

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 08:12 PM »

On point 4, Wave is not just like a regular website. It's a collaborative tool for creating documents and discussion. So yes, I do kind of expect it to be exportable, if they want it to be useful for more than just casual discussion.

-JavaJones (May 21, 2010, 08:07 PM)

I think that destroys the point of Wave. The idea is that in e-mail and other collaborate tools, you get multiple copies which can become outdated or conflict when one person misses the e-mail and joins in on a later one where some information was left out.

Wave stays as a single wave so that all data are always up to date and current for everybody. It's an online web app, so you should expect to have to be online in the browser to use it.

With that in mind, being able to embed Waves into other sites seems (IMO) to be a sufficient replacement for export functionality.

6558

Post New Requests Here / Re: ”run and hide” function for MS Office shortcut bar

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 05:28 PM »

FARR?

6559

DC Member Programs and Projects / Re: My new pet project : makes flash games more like desktop games

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 05:09 PM »

In Swiffout/Firefox the game as it is intended is displayed in the upper left corner. The rest of the screen, however, is not black - it displays the gameplay area normally invisible for the player I'm not saying it is a bad thing, mind you...

-Jabberwock (May 10, 2010, 03:10 AM)

I believe this is an option in Flash that the developer chooses. As a developer you can choose for your content to scale with the window size (window gets bigger, pictures get bigger), or stay the same size and display more stuff (window gets bigger, you can see stuff that was offscreen).

When I did things in Flash, I was often a fan of displaying more stuff.

6560

Living Room / Re: Google TV

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 05:05 PM »

Personally, even though I hardly ever watch TV, if I'm going to watch TV, I'm going to watch TV! I'm not going to be letting it run in the background or on the side while I browse the web and chat with my friends.

During the commercials, on the other hand. . . It might be nice to shrink the view and lower the volume while I do something that interests me on the web. But only if I can get Adblock Plus on the browser. I don't feel like looking at even more advertisements during the advertisements.

The older you get, the more you feel that new trends are just retreads of old themes. Want to see a new movie? Good luck. Going to the theaters this summer, you're in for a LOT of sequels in their third and fourth iterations.

-zridling (May 21, 2010, 04:57 PM)

Or remakes of old classics the current generation might not have heard of before. Sometimes the third or fourth remake, as was the case with I am Legend.

6561

Living Room / Re: Google Search

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 04:50 PM »

Thanks Curt.

That's exactly what I was looking for.

6562

DC Gamer Club / Altitude: Free Weekend (and 50% off) on Steam

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 04:11 PM »

Altitude, which has been briefly mentioned on DC in the RoboKill 2 thread, is a simplistic and fun 2D airplane combat game.

Best described as a cross between Teeworlds, Team Fortress 2, and an RPG, Altitude is a shockingly addictive online multiplayer game from indie studio Nimbly Games. Grab a plane and take to the skies as you compete (and co-operate) with other players and earn experience points bombing the enemy base and taking down foes with a variety of power-ups. As you gain levels you unlock new planes along with equippable "perks" that enhance and alter each vehicle. The instant action grabs you from the start while the nuanced gameplay and healthy serving of upgrades keep you in for the long haul.

-http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/06/altitude.php

Best of all, you can try the full version for free this weekend (right now!) on Steam (Windows or Mac), and if you like it, you can buy it for $5 USD until Monday. It is also available for Linux, but you'd either need to buy it on Steam and wait for the Linux version of Steam, or buy the Linux version direct from Nimbly Games.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am in no way affiliated with Nimbly Games, however, they do have a referral program that will get you in-game points with which to "buy" skins for your airplanes. The above link to Nimbly games will give me some of those points just by you clicking it. As far as I know, there is no way to get the referral bonus for referring you to the Steam version, so if you're feeling generous, click the link anyway. If you don't want me to benefit at all for sharing this cool game with you, then don't click that link, and you may still visit the site at: http://www.altitudegame.com/

6563

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 03:06 PM »

Hi,

1- I haven't tested it in Chrome or IE, but in FF, printing is more of a screen capture, so if your wave is more than a screenful, you won't see it all.
2- True you can link and embed a wave, but if you email the link to someone which is not a participant (i.e. you want them to view the content, but not participate), he/she cannot view it.
3- Copy/paste of a wave to an email client sort of works (formatting is just OK, outlining is lost)
4- There is no export (XML or OPML) to transfer the wave to an outliner

-PPLandry (May 20, 2010, 08:08 AM)

1. I haven't tested printing either, but you're right, it probably only prints what is viewable on the screen at one time.
2. You can now invite people to waves and give them "read-only" access so they can't edit it. So instead of linking them, just invite them and make them "read-only". Especially now that Wave is open to anybody, this shouldn't be a problem.
3. Isn't that how it works when you copy from a website and paste to an e-mail client? I wouldn't know for sure since my e-mail client is set to compose in plain text.
4. Do all other websites offer export to XML/OPML for an outliner? If not, then why do you expect Wave to do so?

6564

Living Room / Re: GPS Unit Recommendations?

« Last post by Deozaan on May 21, 2010, 02:29 PM »

I took a trip to Los Angeles and rented a car and a GPS unit. It was a Garmin Nuvi, I believe, and I liked it a lot.

Ever since then I've been keeping my eye on GPS units and prices, when suddenly my Android G1's Google Maps updated to have Navigation and I no longer need a separate GPS unit anymore.

I find the location to be very accurate most of the time (it takes perhaps up to a minute when starting the GPS to get an accurate "lock" on your position).

The directions will always get you where you're going, though it may not always be the most direct/fastest route. The voice directions are good (though she sounds like a robot), saying things like "In a quarter mile turn right on [street name]" and as you approach it tells you to turn, and (IIRC) gives you the street name again.

It does sometimes say something like "continue on [street]" or "keep right on [street]" when the road goes straight, but that's generally only when two roads merge, one road splits, or the name of the road changes at that location.

It displays in portrait mode, though I suppose you can change it to landscape if you opened the keyboard, but you really shouldn't be typing and driving at the same time. Also, you can drag the map around on the screen with your finger.

It has options for driving, public transportation, biking, or walking directions.

It isn't perfect, and I can't say how the experience would be in Australia, since I'm dealing with USA. You could probably just go to Google Maps and try a few searches to see how accurate it is.

Sometimes the street number isn't accurate, so the house/building is farther down the street than it says. For example, a friend of mine lives out in BFE and when I type in her address it tells me I need to drive about a mile farther down the road to get to her house. But that's an extreme example. Most of the time it's accurate to within a house or two.

I do sometimes run into the problem of missing a turn, and then missing the next few turns when it recalculates the route. But in the area I live in the roads are generally all facing north/south or east/west, so if I miss a turn I can just turn at the next street and end up heading the right direction, and that will give my phone long enough to recalculate the route and get me back on track again. Also, my perspective is that if you didn't have a GPS to update the route and tell you where to go, you'd stop and turn around anyway to get back to the turn you missed. So if you have to slow down or stop for a moment or "make a guess" on a street to let it update the route, it's no different than what you'd do without the GPS.

It's not perfect, but it sure beats printing off directions from a website, or writing down directions from a friend and having to look at them every few minutes to read where to go next. There are some things I wish were better about it, but I'm very satisfied with it, especially because the phone lets me do even more related things, such as searching for addresses, specific businesses, etc., then navigates me there.

One major drawback is that it eats up the battery like nothing else. You'd definitely need a car charger to keep the battery running if you intend on using it for more than an hour or two. And it does require a cell phone and a data connection, so that's something a dedicated GPS unit may have an advantage about.

6565

Living Room / Google TV

« Last post by Deozaan on May 20, 2010, 11:59 PM »

Remember how Microsoft tried to integrate the internet on the television with that crappy WebTV (aka MSNTV) box? Well it seems that Google finally has figured out how to make such a move successful:

Google Inc. believes it has come up with the technology to unite Web surfing with channel surfing on televisions.

To reach the long-elusive goal, Google has joined forces with Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International. The companies unveiled their much-anticipated plan for a "smart" TV on Thursday.

...

... Google was able to conduct a series of Internet searches in a drop-down box that appears at the top of television programs. The search results pointed to Internet videos and other content related to the television program on the screen.

A telecast of a sporting event can be shrunk into a small "picture-in-picture" box so a viewer can look at statistics or other material about the game on TV.

Viewers can also make search requests by speaking into a remote that runs on Google's Android operating system.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt described the potential of the Internet TVs as mind-boggling, although he acknowledged it might be difficult for some consumers to grasp at first. That's one reason he said Google decided to team up with Best Buy, which offers a "geek squad" to deal with complex technology.

"You have to actually see (the Internet TV) to get excited about it," Schmidt said at a news conference.

-http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9FQOHQ84&show_article=1

I guess that's why I'm not at all excited about it.

And like I'm really going to trust Geek Squad to help me out with anything.

6566

Living Room / Re: It's official: Steam is coming to Linux

« Last post by Deozaan on May 19, 2010, 02:30 PM »

I think the bigger consequence will be all the Linux-savvy Windows users itching to jump ship...

-Edvard (May 15, 2010, 02:58 AM)

Just out of curiosity - do you see many such people where you are?

-40hz (May 15, 2010, 12:54 PM)

I don't know if I'm ready to jump ship as soon as all my games work in linux, but each time a new version of Ubuntu is released I test it out and quickly realize I'm never going to use it (regularly) because all my games are stuck in Windows and it's a bit of a pain to reboot into another OS just to play a game. If there comes a point in time when all the PC games I currently play (and all future PC games I might want to play) work just as well on Linux as they do on Windows, then my chances of making the jump would be extremely high, especially when faced with the upgrade cost of the new version of Windows at that time.

6567

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Deozaan on May 19, 2010, 02:18 PM »

But still no printing, export or even copy/paste   

-PPLandry (May 19, 2010, 02:11 PM)

Not sure what you mean.

You can print any website with File -> Print.

True you can't export the wave, but you can embed waves into other websites. Besides, how many websites let you export their content? I don't see that option on the forums here at DC. I don't offer that option on my websites.

Copy and paste works like anything else. Just select the text you want to copy and paste it somewhere else.

So I think I must be misunderstanding you, since I don't understand why you are having problems with printing, and copy/paste or why you expect to be able to export data.

6568

Living Room / Re: Google Search

« Last post by Deozaan on May 19, 2010, 02:01 PM »

You can do a Case Sensitive Google Search here.

-daddydave (May 18, 2010, 10:25 AM)

I had tried that before I started this thread. I couldn't figure out what the results meant, and clicking on any of them didn't seem to do anything.

Try a search for StarEd on there and see if it makes sense to you.

6569

Living Room / Re: Google Search

« Last post by Deozaan on May 19, 2010, 01:59 PM »

No sign of StarED though, are you sure it existed online at some point Deozaan?

-Eóin (May 18, 2010, 11:38 AM)

Yes I'm sure. I managed to find it by searching for "Stars Editor" but only by chance, since the result for Stars Editor was something to edit the (x,y) coordinates of stars in the (2D) game, but on the same page there was a link to the site that had StarEd.

6570

Living Room / Re: Another wierd lawsuit...

« Last post by Deozaan on May 19, 2010, 01:24 PM »

Huh. I thought for sure something like this would only happen in the USA.

This reminds me of the case where a woman sued her husband's mistress for ruining her marriage and won $500,000! Apparently the state she lives in has a law that makes it illegal for someone to cause "alienation of affection" in your marriage.

She reportedly was not seeking that large amount of money and was surprised when it was awarded.

Another thing to remember: "Though such large judgments seem like windfalls, it's not easy to collect, experts say."

I have personally been "awarded" $500 in court for stolen property, of which only $25 was collected. That's when I lost my faith in the American Court of Law.

6571

Living Room / Re: Google demonstrates new communication platform "WAVE": mail, chat , wiki, ..

« Last post by Deozaan on May 19, 2010, 01:02 PM »

Google Wave is now open to all. No invitation needed.

6572

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Free Wondershare DVD Ripper Platinum (24 hours only)!

« Last post by Deozaan on May 18, 2010, 10:16 AM »

Thanks Ashraf!

I haven't ripped a DVD in years, so now I need to figure out the best file format to rip to for PC.

AVI? MP4? VOB? WMV (ha!)?

I'm really amazed at all the built in configurations this software has to rip/convert the video to. PSP, DS, Android phones, etc.

6573

Living Room / Re: Google Search

« Last post by Deozaan on May 18, 2010, 09:12 AM »

It's very possibly that they can't offer a case sensitive search because there simply are no uppercase letters anywhere in their index.

-Eóin (May 18, 2010, 08:02 AM)

Thanks for explaining that. Now it makes sense.

Yet it still seems to me like there would be a relatively simple way to filter the results after they've been loaded in the browser since it does show uppercase letters in the search results I get.

6574

General Software Discussion / Re: MojoPac

« Last post by Deozaan on May 18, 2010, 01:30 AM »

Well MojoPac apparently only works on Windows XP (32-bit). So yeah. It's a no go.

Also, I found another MojoPac thread here on DC from 4 years (!) ago: MojoPac - Potentially Great Software with Serious Flaws.

I'd say it hasn't made much progress in the past four years. It's still potentially great software, but has serious flaws, such as it not working on a modern OS.

6575

General Software Discussion / Re: MojoPac

« Last post by Deozaan on May 18, 2010, 12:46 AM »

I'm going to test it. I've got a 16-bit game designed for Windows 95 that doesn't work on my 64-bit OS. Let's see if MojoPac fixes that if I install the game onto it from a 32-bit OS which does run the game.