Recent Posts

726

Living Room / Hi

« Last post by allen on September 08, 2006, 06:39 PM »

After a few pings from mouser, occasional peaks in at the forum, and never missing a newsletter -- I'm back.  Officially, I never left . . . I just got distracted.  My free time decreased by a good bit (not something GTD could help with, more a matter of my wife working longer hours and son demanding more attention.  My remaining free time has largely been divided between web projects I'm obligated to and a video game.  Shameful!

I'll try not to disappear for a while.  In the mean time, could someone give me a way to turn off the rich editor buttons when making message?

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Living Room / Re: Cody's coins - made from what?

« Last post by allen on September 08, 2006, 06:18 PM »

The only difference between chocolate and any given metal (melting point aside) is the fact that of these only one is delicious.  That taken into account, it's obvious which pressed coin would hold the most value -- and I'd be willing to go out on a limb and assume he carries with him only the most valuable form of currency.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Problems with Opera

« Last post by allen on September 08, 2006, 04:53 PM »

Tried it on Opera 9.02 (development build) -- while I didn't have any problems with opera or SSC seizing up, the screenshot I got was what I saw when I clicked -- no scrolling took place.

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General Software Discussion / Re: What to you think of RealPlayer?

« Last post by allen on September 08, 2006, 04:46 PM »

hey, allen is back. but for how long?

-nudone (September 08, 2006, 01:00 PM)

I never left, I was just . . . not entirely present

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General Software Discussion / Re: What to you think of RealPlayer?

« Last post by allen on September 08, 2006, 12:16 PM »

I used to hate Real, but it really seems to have cleaned up its act quite a bit over the last few years.  While it's too big/heavy to be considered my ideal media solution/player, I find it far more desirable than windows media player, itunes or jukebox.

I'm especially fond of Real's "Rhapsody" player/music service -- that's something they did absolutely right.

731

Living Room / Re: What's your significant other's favorite key on the keyboard?

« Last post by allen on June 16, 2006, 05:55 AM »

Allen sits in the amber glow of a Deck keyboard, enjoying its rugged durability and compact design . . . little does he know its unconventional key placement will be the cause of confusion and, perhaps, the thing to rekindle his marriage.

Allen: What's your favorite key on the keyboard?

Heidi: Huh? Oh, you should know that.  I like the little squiggly one that's usually . . . right here.  But you don't have it?

Allen points to a space next to the space bar

Heidi: Yeah, that. I like it because it's kinda cute.

Allen nods, "Yeah, me too."

Heidi: We're in love again!

Allen: No, you stole my favorite key.

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Living Room / Re: SanDisk accused of "Shades of Sony Rootkit"

« Last post by allen on June 16, 2006, 05:47 AM »

I find this a bit saddening, I've been a long time fan of SanDisk's thumb drives and portable mp3 players . . . with gimmicks like that, though, my next usb drive is likely to have a different watermark.

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Living Room / Re: June 4 Podcast

« Last post by allen on June 15, 2006, 07:29 AM »

. . . I always thought nudone was pretending (or not pretending, I wouldn't know) to be nude at his computer.  Nude one . . .  I'm not sure what the bigger shocker was, the pronunciation of the name or the fact that he sounded like he was sitting in a posh arm chair with a glass of wine and a fat story book . . .

734

General Software Discussion / Re: Giving gamers two windows to the Web: Opera for NDS

« Last post by allen on June 15, 2006, 07:17 AM »

Opera is by far my favorite browser -- and I've long loved the DS system.  The two together will only make me a more avid couch potato.  The DS doesn't burn my legs, unlike this laptop.

I'm really glad it's Opera doing it -- they do some amazing miniaturization of web pages.  Most handheld browsers butcher things, but in my experience Opera makes the shrinking as elegant as is humanly possible.

735

DonationCoder Projects / Re: Flat File Mini CMS in PHP

« Last post by allen on May 28, 2006, 06:16 PM »

Flat files, my favorite Depending on just how mini it is, I may be able to help. I've been a bit busy the last few weeks but things are, hopefully, slowing down!

736

General Software Discussion / Re: EditPad Pro 6

« Last post by allen on May 27, 2006, 10:33 AM »

I've never put much thought into the price, as for me the value has always outweighed it -- I would have appreciated an additional beta discount though

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General Software Discussion / EditPad Pro 6

« Last post by allen on May 27, 2006, 07:26 AM »

I've been beta testing EditPad Pro version 6 for a number of months now and have been very enthusiastic about the release -- many of the features lacking in this already stellar editor have been implemented.  The biggest additions, or at least the ones I've most commonly heard listed as shortcomings by other users, is full macro support and an extensive upgrade to its external tools support including full support of standard I/O.

There is a free trial version available -- price goes up in July, so buy it now if you love it

Below is the list of major additions, scraped from the version history page.

• New file panel (View menu) showing a tree of files inside projects. This makes it much easier to manage large numbers of files.
• New explorer panel (View menu) making it easy to open files without going through File|Open.
• FTP support (View menu). Open files from FTP, save files to FTP and upload/download files from/to disk.
• File history (View menu). Easily manage and compare backup files. New backup options in Options, Preferences, Files.
• File navigator (View menu) showing an outline of the file's structure, based on fully editable .jgfns files. The .jgfns file can also generate automatic text folding points.
• Keystroke macros: Record and play back sequences of keystrokes and/or menu items to automate repetitive editing tasks.
• Redesigned search-and-replace panel, with all commands and options now available through the new Search menu.
• Improved rectangular block editing or column editing, with many new commands in the Block menu. Rectangular selections are now truly rectangular. They no longer need to start and end at a character, but can extend beyond the end of the line.
• Redesigned Project functionality. EditPad Pro can now keep multiple projects open. Once saved into an .epp file, changes to a project are saved automatically.
• Extra|Compare Files: New output options that can be used in addition to or instead of creating a new tab with the merged contents. Highlight changes in the original files, create a new file with only removed lines, with only added lines, with only removed lines, with both added and removed lines, or with only lines that both files have in common.
• Fold menu: A block of text can now be folded, keeping only the first line visible. File navigation schemes can define automatic folding points. Commands to copy only the visible lines in the selection to the clipboard, and to delete all the lines in the selection that were made invisible by the code folding.
• Improved syntax coloring. All JGsoft-supplied schemes are now fully editable .jgcscs files. Syntax coloring is now applied in the background. If your scheme is too complex or the file too large, syntax coloring will temporarily disappear rather than temporarily locking up EditPad Pro.
• External tools can now be configured through Tools|Configure Tools instead of Options|Preferences. A great number of new options, including a new message panel with syntax coloring, are now available.
• Install on Removable Drive command, so you can carry EditPad with you wherever you go.

Link: EditPad Pro

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General Software Discussion / Re: email client. Opera's M2 vs. the Bat

« Last post by allen on May 15, 2006, 04:34 PM »

Yes, but EditPad Pro should have won the text editor shootout, too

I'd probably still be using TB, but it's the ins and outs that really make it valuable -- I'd put years into it, lost it with a hard drive and just don't have the drive/need to try to get back to where I was -- and with M2's search being so effective these days, it's growing on me.

739

General Software Discussion / Re: email client. Opera's M2 vs. the Bat

« Last post by allen on May 13, 2006, 08:52 PM »

Opera is definitely powerful/configurable -- The Bat!'s new keyboard shortcut configuration system seems to be stepping backwards in intuitive application while Opera's would be difficult to further streamline than it is.

My biggest complaints with M2, is it has a tendency to drag down Opera when downloading a bunch of messages to an already large mailbase and the lack of ability to create aliases/additional senders without resorting to adding additional mail accounts.

What amazes me most is the speed of MW's search, though -- blink and I'll miss it, with 50k+ messages.

My experience was similar to nontroppo's -- I used TB from basically the beginning; 97 or 98 beta testing all along but have strayed from it in recent years.  Great application, but to really take advantage of it you sort of need to be willing to marry it

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Screenshot Captor / Comments on ScreenshotCaptor - Beta Version - 2.12.01 to 2.24.01

« Last post by allen on May 11, 2006, 07:30 AM »

The copy path to clipboard is a great addition -- thanks!

Hey, that text scraping feature -- would it be possible to implement a pure scrape mode, so I could scrape that information without capturing the image to my hard drive?

-- Btw, a few people on the Eets forum are using this App, now

741

Best Dialog Extender / Re: FileBox Extender updated to 1.91.01

« Last post by allen on May 11, 2006, 07:28 AM »

For a minute there you had me excited, thought there was a new update since that one -- thought maybe the additional keyboard shortcuts I'd requested had been implemented

742

General Software Discussion / Re: These days, it's the Usability, stupid

« Last post by allen on May 09, 2006, 04:02 PM »

I use a lot of those apps -- and they have grassroots followings -- but I don't think for the reasons described in all cases.  For instance, once glance at the options for F&RR or Screenshot captor and a your average cubicle dweller would ask when they get their training course on the new software

743

Living Room / Re: Web 2 Logo

« Last post by allen on May 09, 2006, 12:56 PM »

Way to ruin my gloating, m_s   

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Living Room / Re: Web 2 Logo

« Last post by allen on May 09, 2006, 06:42 AM »

I don't see any 37signals products on there -- and they consider themselves the definitive web 2.0.  pwned!

745

Living Room / Re: Web Hosting Review

« Last post by allen on May 08, 2006, 06:40 AM »

A website where you resign any semblence of integrity in exchange for easy money?  That's very American of you.

746

Living Room / nontroppo

« Last post by allen on May 06, 2006, 06:46 AM »

I'm really slow.  I mean -really- slow.  Like, if I got my IQ tested I think I'd score a "durr" this week.

Trying to figure out some keyboard stuff for opera, I went to the Opera Browser Wiki at nontroppo.org as I so often do and found a link to FARR.  I scurried back here to see if a link had been posted and just realized user "nontroppo", who I'd been referred to about bug reporting previously, is none other than said nontroppo.org.  Needless to say, I got to make this post instead of a "Hey, look what link I found!" post.

I'm really slow.  I mean -really- slow.  Like, if I got my IQ tested I think I'd score a "durr" this week.

747

Living Room / Web Hosting Review

« Last post by allen on May 05, 2006, 07:31 AM »

In an overt-cover operation, dreamhost exposes "hosting review" services for the pay-for-bias goldmines they are.

Link

748

Living Room / Re: Fast Beetle

« Last post by allen on May 04, 2006, 08:40 PM »

That's sweet, a PHD put to good use.  I want to see a demo of that baby in action.

749

Developer's Corner / Re: Can you read and understand C? :-))

« Last post by allen on May 03, 2006, 05:20 AM »

I'm guessing it recurses through the verses and such, so in the source each gift only had to be typed once and reused to minimize text used in the source, but . . . man, that's amazing.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Is there a News Reader that Searches the News?

« Last post by allen on May 01, 2006, 08:14 PM »

I don't know anything that does precisely that -- but I know both Opera's M2 and Lektora (a firefox/IE plugin) have the ability to have persistent searches -- you set up a search and it effectively acts as a filter, of sorts -- a virtual folder collecting all relevant stories.  While you're still downloading everything, you don't have to go searching manually for the items you're after.  This is a feature I, personally, take great advantage of.