Recent Posts

751

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by nudone on October 05, 2010, 07:28 AM »

Perhaps to assist end users that hold the tablet at an angle to contend with the parallax created?

(Screen thickness + angle of view create a perceived shift in the true point of contact)

-Stoic Joker (October 05, 2010, 07:05 AM)

good point, you'd think that would be the case but from my experiments (trying to be clever by offsetting and changing the angle of the pen) the only way the parallax idea might work is, if your eyes were about 3 inches away from the screen, i.e. closer than the top of the pen.

i'm being facetious, of course, but looking around the web it appears that other people have come to the same conclusion. the calibration routine on the device only makes matters worse - even when using a method of using a 16 point grid rather than the 4 corner grid, it's all worse that a simple click of the Reset button.

the calibration system is so wrong it just doesn't provide a consistent "offset" between pen and cursor. a single corner area might be off, or all corners are off in different directions. honestly, it's a total joke.

judging by some of the other comments i've found about the bad calibration it seems that some users are happy to forgive the machine. instead they'll enlarge the scroll bars or gui buttons, or simply say that watching the cursor and not the pen tip is the important part, i.e. they don't care that in some places of the screen, cursor and pen are off by a few millimetres. they obviously need to just hit the Reset button and everything will be fine instead of just lying to themselves that everything is acceptable.

752

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by nudone on October 05, 2010, 06:43 AM »

SHOCKING NEWS...

The Motion LE1700 tablet isn't an absolute total piece of garbage after all. It's actually a good tablet.

I'd given up with the device almost immediately and decided that I'd stick it back on eBay when I could be bothered. Before doing that, I thought I'd try once more to calibrate the pen - even though every previous attempt resulted in making it rubbish.

It appears that you can get almost millimetre accuracy between pen and cursor if you simply "Reset" the tablet settings in Control Panel. So, manually calibrating the pen makes it useless - no matter what you try, it's always out by a few millimetres somewhere on the screen; but Resetting the machine will give you the best calibration there is - just with a single click.


I'll use the Motion now, it feels like a different machine, I'm keeping it. But the question remains: what is the point of providing calibration options that don't work. And an obvious built-in default configuration that works near perfectly.

753

General Software Discussion / Re: My Windows Desktop is a shambles...

« Last post by nudone on September 28, 2010, 04:37 PM »

(oooh. that SideSlide looks very interesting.)

754

Developer's Corner / Re: Why computer programs should not be patentable -- in easy-to-understand terms

« Last post by nudone on September 27, 2010, 01:37 PM »

(i might be making this all up but, i thought Apple had already had a go at someone for daring to use the "i" at the start of their name. or am i just thinking of the EasyJet case?)

755

General Software Discussion / Re: FlatPress blogging platform: flat text file stored

« Last post by nudone on September 27, 2010, 03:37 AM »

very interesting...

756

General Software Discussion / Re: Aqua Snap

« Last post by nudone on September 26, 2010, 03:25 AM »

this might be a better link, from the creators of the program (i think): http://www.nurgo-sof...om/products/aquasnap

757

Living Room / Re: When you knock at my door...

« Last post by nudone on September 26, 2010, 02:55 AM »

cool, where can i get one? they sound great.

seriously, they sound awful - but perfect for the mobile hip 'n' happenin people. it still amazes me that ringtone companies can charge £5 for a ringtone. but the owners of such companies are all millionaires. so, i'm obviously the complete idiot. no doubt the inventor of the ringback-tone is similarly wealthy.

758

General Software Discussion / Re: is there an ultimate file extension manager (to work with windows 7, at least).

« Last post by nudone on September 25, 2010, 03:33 AM »

i used to use Types. it isn't really up to the job on Windows 7. not for managing file type icons, at least.

759

Living Room / Re: now we have nettops... but portable monitors?

« Last post by nudone on September 23, 2010, 09:53 AM »

true. rolling the screen up to a good, tight, size like that would be enough to keep me happy. if it fits in your pocket and you don't even know it's there - that's how the technology should be.

760

Living Room / Re: now we have nettops... but portable monitors?

« Last post by nudone on September 22, 2010, 04:20 AM »

true, having creases on the screen would be rubbish - i'd hope that is something that can be overcome. well, it will be overcome won't it - just how and when is the question.

761

General Software Discussion / Re: 12TONEt2.WAV

« Last post by nudone on September 22, 2010, 04:00 AM »

KMPlayer is maybe too big for my taste, a "media center", and has not been updated for a year.

hmm, maybe KMPlayer claims to be a media center - i've never noticed that. it does install and first open up with some kind of media library window, but i close it and never encounter it again during everyday use. to me, KMPlayer just looks like a typical video (or "media" as it also does audio) player.

and, as sajman99 says, the older versions of the program seem to work fine. i hardly ever bother to udpate it and i can't remember the last time it wouldn't play a file.

(i'll have to check out PotPlayer.)

762

General Software Discussion / Re: 12TONEt2.WAV

« Last post by nudone on September 21, 2010, 09:52 AM »

yep, KMPLayer is the one. 

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General Software Discussion / Re: 12TONEt2.WAV

« Last post by nudone on September 21, 2010, 09:43 AM »

i agree, VLC is pretty ugly in the icon department (and a few other areas). maybe you'd prefer KMPlayer.

i'd still be using that program (KMPLayer) if it provided background window shadow in Windows 7. Which, I admit, is a pretty poor reason to stop using a program - especially when i've considered it the best media player for several years now. But VLC has the background shadow - so it stays for now.

764

General Software Discussion / Re: 12TONEt2.WAV

« Last post by nudone on September 21, 2010, 08:49 AM »

(sorry, again, this won't help - but VLC plays the entire movie without any missing seconds. could you swap media players? or is that not an option?)

765

General Software Discussion / Re: 12TONEt2.WAV

« Last post by nudone on September 21, 2010, 07:48 AM »

not that it helps, but it works on my win 7 too. i don't have any specific codec packs installed - just VLC Media Player.

766

Living Room / Re: Hilarious video, for those old enough to appreciate it.

« Last post by nudone on September 21, 2010, 06:20 AM »

That old CRT monitor would be way too heavy to do that to before realizing your mistake.

-Deozaan (September 20, 2010, 09:38 PM)

it says "A WOMAN GOES BACK TO WORK AFTER THIRTY YEARS.."

looks like that thirty years was spent doing a lot of weight-lifting. 

767

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Office: No customizable keyboard shortcuts? Really?

« Last post by nudone on September 20, 2010, 08:27 PM »

in 2007, you can customise the quick access toolbar - which allows you to edit the hotkeys. the options look very similar to Josh's screengrab above.

768

Living Room / Re: The Story of Stuff - Cosmetics, Bottled Water...

« Last post by nudone on September 17, 2010, 05:33 AM »

i agree.

769

Screenshot Captor / Re: ScreenshotCaptor Flagged As Trojan by Malwarebytes

« Last post by nudone on September 17, 2010, 05:11 AM »

how do the anti-virus companies decide that something could be a positive infection? seems like they just copy each other definitions without any thought of whether it's accurate or not - otherwise how come we have so many completely wrong results.

770

Living Room / Re: Is Antenna Climbing the Scariest Job Ever?

« Last post by nudone on September 16, 2010, 02:35 AM »

i like the bit where he starts doing pull-ups (chin-ups).

771

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by nudone on September 15, 2010, 11:43 AM »

well, i might have exagerated slightly. the offset between cursor and pen tip is about 2mm (maybe 3mm in places). i don't believe there is a tablet and pen combination that is pin-point accurate as i've now seen four different screens and none have been perfect - so, i guess, i'm just asking for too much. i've read about other people not being happy with wacom cintiqs but they are in the minority.

it's all down to drawing style i suppose. if your style is loose, then there's no need for high accuracy and it will probably never even be noticeable. or, if you stay away from the edges of the screen, then that will help.

one thing now seems clear. i've no reason to keep the LE1700 as it perform worse than the tc1100 - and it certainly isn't worth several hundred pounds more just for a few pixels of extra screen space.

it just seems like i've spent a lot of money (and time) to simply find that a pencil and paper is better than all these electronic miracle devices.

772

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by nudone on September 15, 2010, 09:14 AM »

perhaps, i should just add that i'm using Alias Sketchbook for drawing with. this program only shows a very small dot where the cursor is (within the drawing area). that's a dot that looks like a single pixel (and a very faded one against a white background at that).

so, you see, if the pen and cursor are not perfectly aligned you can't draw accurately - it's too late seeing how misaligned the ink is after you've made a stroke.

i'll try using something like Photoshop that displays a brush where the cursor is - but it's still going to be out by a few pixels, so incredibly annoying.

other annoyances about the Motion LE1700: the screen isn't very bright. it's very hot underneath. and it's early days - i'm sure i can find a lot more problems yet.

773

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by nudone on September 15, 2010, 09:04 AM »

yeah, i've done the calibrate, calibrate, calibrate routine over and over; even trying different ways of offsetting the pen to the marker to try and counteract the awful inaccuracy.

the tc1100 is okay, not perfect, but bearable - plus i don't expect much from that device.

the wacom cintiq is crap towards the edges. well, i thought it was crap until i used the LE1700.

the LE1700 is okay in the middle and towards one side. the opposite side/edge it's, at least, 3mm out. which i can't really adjust as that then makes the rest of the screen "out".

don't get me wrong, this is probably okay if all you want to do is click on buttons and scribble a bit of text. but i don't. i want something that replaces a pencil and paper - something that provides absolute pin sharp accuracy between pen tip and cursor.

when you draw with these devices and they are out it makes anything other than "doodling" a horrible experience. it's not far off trying to draw something with your eyes shut and just guessing at where the tip is.

you know what. i can see why tablet (requiring pens) devices never took off now. it's because they are rubbish to draw with. Apple made a very smart choice in making their ipad work with big fat fingers - it completely removes the need to be accurate with a pen tip. what a stroke of genius.

774

Site/Forum Features / Re: Idea: DC Cody Tshirts customized for an interest area

« Last post by nudone on September 15, 2010, 07:28 AM »

okay. i'll remove the shadows from the image and i can colour the bowl if required (leaving it black on a grey t-shirt would look fine, i think).

let me know what else to edit and then we can carry on. or not, as no one still seems sure of what they want.

775

Living Room / Re: tc1100 tablet pc dies before i've even set it up

« Last post by nudone on September 15, 2010, 07:22 AM »

right. i'm very unsatisfied with with the Motion LE1700.

i said the pen accuracy of the machine was better than my Wacom Cintiq. well, i obviously jinxed myself by saying that - the motion's pen accuracy is rubbish. who designs these pen and screen devices? people that write with super fat marker pens all day so they believe "accurate" is within a 5mm radius?

TOTALLY PATHETIC.

Anyone that uses these pen and built in screen devices needs a reward for putting up with how rubbish they are. this is the 21st Century and my pencil and paper is still about a thousand times better than these cutting edge machines. Rubbish, total rubbish.

i'm that wound-up, i think i'm just going to flog the lot of them.