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6726

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 11:16 PM »

Heh heh.  For a second there I thought you were going to say he'd then blindfold the guests, spin them around, and see if they can sit down and run programs without knowing which OS they are on. 
  

6727

Living Room / Re: Scientists say: Alcohol DOES make people more attractive

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 10:07 PM »

I wonder if they did a test where you rate something from 1 to 10 before and after getting half sloshed?  I would bet that whether the people giving the rating were more impressed or not they would still give a higher number because the booze makes them less inhibited.  IOW, I still think that skank is ugly but I'll rate her a 3 when drunk and a 2 when I'm sober.. but ask her out never.

6728

General Software Discussion / Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 10:02 PM »

Hmmmmm, I'm trying the 0.24 May beta in FAVC 1.07.  The speed of FAVC is seductive but it looks like AVStoDVD is better at producing a VIDEO_TS folder with at least 4 GB in it. It may be worth sacrificing a little speed if I get consistently good output.

6729

Living Room / Re: Man names son 2.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 09:58 PM »

Reading the subject line, I thought the guy had named his son "2.0" and thought "what a complete dolt". This makes a strange sort of sense. Still, I doubt the kid'll be thanking his dad in the coming years...

-Darwin (October 12, 2009, 09:26 PM)

At least he used a round number.. not 3.7Pre

6730

General Software Discussion / Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 08:17 PM »

Thanks for the skinny.  I'm trying the predictive quant on my dual core now.  It seems like 0.24 takes bigger samples than 0.23 but that may be my imagination. Might just be different size input files.  I'm going to try a 2 pass using the lock on my quad core and see how it goes.

6731

Living Room / Re: Man names son 2.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 08:13 PM »

If he named the kid Jon Blake Cusack.dll that might be a different story(or even a whole library.)

-MilesAhead (October 12, 2009, 07:12 PM)

totally impractical - just think how difficult it would be to communicate

-Target (October 12, 2009, 07:26 PM)

Might even get him executed!

-cranioscopical (October 12, 2009, 07:42 PM)

think what he'd be like as a teenager, no grunts or sullen silences, just ones and zeros...

-Target (October 12, 2009, 07:55 PM)

Might never come out of his shell.  Even if he did, it might be with a resounding thunk!

6732

Living Room / Re: Man names son 2.0

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 07:12 PM »

Hmmmmmm, I don't see the big deal.  The dude just came out of the dark ages of using Roman Numerals.  If he named the kid Jon Blake Cusack.dll that might be a different story(or even a whole library.)

6733

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 06:33 PM »

It's a shame things can't be kept simple.  I like HP machines just for the fact that after buying 6 I think I had one that was bad OOTB.  The others have all been plug and play, working until obsolete.

I am amazed at times at the power of the written word though.  I had one customer when I was doing auto repair, that got a "winterize" special done. We flushed the radiator, yadda yadda.. then when it came time to put the anti-freeze mix in, he would not allow us to put it in the radiator because it was a Chrysler motors product, and on the radiator it said "use only Mopar anti-freeze."  That's like saying "use only snowballs made with General Motors water."  I'm serious.  The guy actually went down to a parts store and came back with a couple of gallons of Mopar anti-freeze and made us put that in!!!

I wish I had an option on some swamp land for that dude!!!   

6734

General Software Discussion / Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 06:22 PM »

btw I'm curious.  Did you have to mess around with HCenc 0.24 to use it with AVStoDVD or just copy with name change?

6735

Finished Programs / Re: Right click menu

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 06:13 PM »

http://www.nirsoft.n...shell_menu_view.html

6736

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 06:10 PM »

btw you can also put the path of a shortcut in the .ini file if you need to pass params to a sub program.  Just make a shortcut with the needed param in the target line.  Then put the path to the .lnk file instead of the exe.

6737

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 02:47 PM »

Just uploaded v. 1.04   Only change is it calls the function to clean off dead tray icons twice with a short delay between.  The function just moves the mouse along the tray, then returns to the current position.  By scanning twice it should eliminate most orphaned tray icons.

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General Software Discussion / Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 02:32 PM »

I'll try the May HC then.  Thanks for the tip.   

6739

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 02:29 PM »

Done.  Download v. 1.03 from my download page.
Run it once to get the KillDelay setting in the .ini file.

If KillDelay is 0 you will be prompted to kill sub programs as before.
If other than 0, all sub programs will be killed without prompting.

Values less than min will be set to min (about 1/100th second)
Values greater than max will be set to max(about 10 seconds)

6740

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 11, 2009, 01:37 PM »

You have USB ports.  You can plug anything in.  The bay thing is just a gimmick to sell you a USB drive that will fit in the hole.  Jeez PS/2 machines you could hold down a spring loaded tab and pull the drives out with no tools!!  Like it's rocket science!  All that's needed is some mechanical engineering.

Looks like HP has gone to a tech job security program.  Like the hindrances are designed to discourage the owner of the box from opening it.

6741

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 11:26 PM »

Now has a Readme file and is on FavesSoft downloads page:

http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

The link is near the bottom of the page.

6742

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 10:12 PM »

To me the really bizarre thing is HP putting a bay in the tower case so you can slide a USB 2.0 drive in.  I mean, the thing has to connect to the motherboard somehow anyway and the internal drives are Sata.  So why not just have a snap in with a Sata connection?  Makes no sense at all. They could have had a coup with a built-in docking station that people would actually use.  Just slide an internal Sata drive in the bay!!

6743

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 07:41 PM »

Version 1.02 uses very little CPU now.

edit: seems to be working very well.  The only other issue is if you click on RunGroup Tray Icon, it will pause the script.  You'll see the check mark.  Just click on that if it's checked to resume it again.  Other than that it seems to be pretty stable now.  On Vista64 and Windows 7 I'm showing less than 1% CPU used.

edit2: updated icon so 'RG' is a bit easier to see.

6744

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 07:38 PM »

I see where it's using too much CPU.  I'll add a Sleep() to the idle loop.  That should bring it down.  New version coming up in a bit.

6745

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 06:27 PM »

paarkhi I hope it works for you.  I've ended up making a QuickLaunch shortcut to use this with Firefox and GigaGet.  No sense running GigaGet if FF isn't up.

6746

General Software Discussion / Re: Win7: Anyone else getting excited?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 05:56 PM »

I'm not into building systems so I generally get an HP since it's pretty good price/performance for what you can get at BestBuy(and I can return it in a few minutes if it's a lemon.)

I've been getting a lot of clearance sale flotsam from HP.  It will be interesting to see what the new configurations with 7 pre-installed will be like.

Anyone have any inside scoop how many years we have to wait for USB 3.0?  Also disappointing is none of the otherwise pretty good deals seem to have Esata.  I hate opening boxes just to stick some card in that should already be there.

6747

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 05:51 PM »

RunGroup with its own icon

Ok, I added an enhancement to clean off the task tray if the app being killed is a tray app.  That way you don't have to mouse over the tray icon to get rid of it.

6748

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 04:41 PM »

edit:  see next post.   Same program but has custom icon for the task tray.
(nothing special, just teal background with white RB on it)

6749

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA:Check for program exit and offer to close other programs

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 04:12 PM »

edit:  the strategy I used is I launch the subprograms, launch the master program, as it may be passing a command line to first instance so a browser could open a tab, or whatnot.  Then instead of using ShellExecuteWait I just check for the master program running.  As long as some exe with the same name as master program is running, RunGroup will just loop.

If you need to kill RunGroup without closing the master program you can exit it from the Tray Icon Menu.

I'll upload again after substituting for the default AutoIt icon.

6750

General Software Discussion / Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?

« Last post by MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 04:06 PM »

I just tried this program again. I took it off before because I didn't understand the rationale. After reading the help in more depth I get it.  It's AVStoDVD

It takes an interesting approach.  It calculates the output DVD bitrate and uses an encoding scheme based on the range.  The ranges are adjustable. If the bitrate is high, it just uses QuEnc one pass CBR.  If the bitrate is mid level, it uses HC Encode predictive quant one pass.  If the bitrate is low, it uses HC Encode 2 pass.

The default video standard is set to PAL.  If most of your stuff is NTSC you may want to change that setting, set it as default, then close and reopen the GUI just to avoid resetting it every time.

It also comes with the latest Imgburn for burning the DVDs.  I haven't tried burning.  I just set it to produce a VIDEO_TS folder.

I'm going to mess around with a few conversions and see how it does.

edit:  I'm starting to like this app.  It's open source and comes with QuEnc 0.75 alpha(I thought QuEnc stopped at 0.72 .. glad it's still being worked.) I fed it a bunch of .wmv files and it churned them out.  The sources were HD.  The encoding was slow, as it is when you resize down, but the results were very glossy.  Looks like a keeper for the video toolbox.