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751

General Software Discussion / Re: RAMdisk on XP 32bit - brainstorming!

« Last post by Nod5 on May 10, 2009, 03:22 AM »

I tested Cenatek Dataram RAMDisk Beta V.3.5.107: Got a blue screen of death 10 seconds after starting a ramdisk! I think the software firewall was the cause because after disabling it things worked fine.

Startup time for Firefox portable 3 from ramdisk / harddisk: 2 / 6 seconds. But after the first start Firefox is cached in system memory so the starting it from the harddrive is just as fast thereafter (until something else takes its place in the cache I guess)

f0dder: that makes sense. Once I have upgraded to more RAM I'll setup things similarly:
- disable pagefile completely
- place programs I often start (but don't keep running all the time) on the ramdisk. (Dataram RAMDisk already has built in support for loading/saving RAMDisk contents on system startup/shutdown. But I'll test and compare the other programs too. What ramdisk software are you using?)
- experiment with using the ramdisk for FlashGet downloads

752

General Software Discussion / Re: RAMdisk on XP 32bit - brainstorming!

« Last post by Nod5 on May 09, 2009, 07:02 AM »

Thanks! Here's a roundup from some more searching:

CENATEK.COM -- http://www.cenatek.com/
1. Dataram RAMDisk Beta V.3.5.107  -- released 2008(2009?)____  "free for disks under 4 GB"
2. RAMDiskXP v2.0.100 RC7 (trial) -- released 2005-11-15

http://www.cenatek.c.../product_ramdisk.cfm
http://www.cenatek.c...sk_download_list.php
http://www.cenatek.c...XP_Configuration.pdf
"The absolute maximum RAMDiskXP/2000 disk size is 3045 MB, if you have a computer with 4 GB
of RAM installed.  RAMDisk will always leave some memory for the OS." = can't use memory above 3.X GB in XP 32bit?


Gavotte Ramdisk -- http://bbs.et8.net/b...wthread.php?t=906641 (non-english)
1. ramdisk5.7z (free) -- released 2008-11-17

http://www.chweng.id.../swintro/ramdisk.php
http://www.mydigital...000-and-2003-server/
http://translate.goo...atwiki.jp/gavotterd/
 (claims Gavotte can use memory above 3.X GB in XP 32bit)


Qsoft RAMDisk -- http://www.ramdisk.tk/
1. RAMDisk Enterprise 5.3.1.11 ($10) -- release 2009-04-17
2. Free RAMDisk 5.0.2.2  (free; 64MB size limit) -- released ______
3. RAMDisk Extended Basic (trial & nag) (RAMDisk_Evaluation_52102PRO.zip) -- released ______

http://members.fortu...MDisk/ramdiskent.htm
http://members.fortu...download_and_001.htm
http://members.fortu...Disk/ramdiskfree.htm
http://members.fortu...Download/brewing.htm (updates/news)

limitation: "The 32 bit versions of XP and Vista do not allow the RAMDisk to allocate memory above a particular 3.x GB boundery"

trialware: "The "Enterprise Evaluation" (full) versions are freely available and can be downloaded from the links within the table below. The versions are full functional , but they may however popup randomly a "nasty" reminder message. They may display a "Fatal application exit" message, although there is nothing "fatal" going on and you can continue your work without any fear at all. The evaluation version will expire on September 1st , 2009."


AR Soft -- http://www.arsoft-online.com/
1. AR RAM Disk (free) 1.20 -- released 2009-04-23

http://www.arsoft-on...;id=26&Itemid=47
"The AR RAM Disk is no longer supported by AR Soft. You may continue to use the RAM Disk, but we will not provide any help or additional information. Since the development of this product has been stopped there will no more versions of the software."

http://www.softpedia...-Soft-RAM-Disk.shtml

can't use memory above 3.x GB in XP 32bit


SuperSpeed -- http://www.superspeed.com/ramdisk.php
1. RamDisk ($35)
2. Ramdisk Plus ($50)

"RamDisk Plus 9 has a most unique feature. Our patent pending technology can access memory beyond the limitation imposed by a Windows 32-bit operating system! In other words, RamDisk Plus 9 can use "unmanaged" Windows' memory e.g. above 4GB. It can also use the stubbornly inaccessable memory between 3.2GB and 4GB." = can use memory above 3.x GB in XP 32bit

http://www.superspee...ad/trialversions.php

ImDisk -- http://www.ltr-data....opencode.html#ImDisk
1. ImDisk (freeware) 1.1.4 -- 2009-04-21

+ free ; actively developed ; author active in forum (below)
+ can also mount image files (like an .iso image of a DVD)
- can't use memory above 3.x GB in XP 32bit

http://www.ltr-data....opencode.html#ImDisk (official page)
http://www.boot-land...t=SF&s=&f=59 (official forum)

FarStone -- http://www.farstone....rtual-hard-drive.htm
1. Virtual Hard Drive 2 Pro ($30)

edit changelog:
090511 added ImDisk, Farstone

753

General Software Discussion / RAMdisk on XP 32bit - brainstorming!

« Last post by Nod5 on May 08, 2009, 05:59 AM »

I'm soon upgrading my XP 32bit system with two new 2GB sticks of RAM. Together with my two previous 1GB sticks I'll then have a total of 6GB.
But from what I've read XP can only make use of a bit above 3GB for regular RAM for some complex reasons.

So I'm looking into the possibilities of using the leftover memory as a RAM-disk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_disk

I'd like to brainstorm a bit about that.  Things I'd like to get feedback on:

1. This RAM-disk program claims to use the memory XP can't use as regular memory for a RAM-disk:
"RamDisk Plus 9 has a most unique feature. Our patent pending technology can access memory beyond the limitation imposed by a Windows 32-bit operating system! In other words, RamDisk Plus 9 can use "unmanaged" Windows' memory e.g. above 4GB. It can also use the stubbornly inaccessable memory between 3.2GB and 4GB."
http://www.superspee.../desktop/ramdisk.php 

Has anyone tried that? Does it work well? Any drawbacks? (Note: even if there are great problems with that I'm still interested in the RAM-disk questions below -- 3GB is still a lot of memory for many cases so I could still test to devote a bit of that for a RAM-disk)

(The Ramdisk Plus software was brought up in this older thread that didn't catch on https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=10979.0 )

2. putting the XP page file on a RAM-disk: one (possible) benefit would be non-recoverability. Are there also noticeable speed benefits?

3. putting the cache of Firefox or other programs on a RAM-disk: speed benefits?

4. putting all of Firefox on a RAM-disk (via a script that copies Portable Firefox to the RAM-disk at each system start): would I get additional speed benefits, especially when starting Firefox?

5. Downloading: I sometimes use Flashget Classic to grab video streams. With many parallell streams Flashget easily freezes and seems to strain the harddrive. Would I avoid those problems by saving the downloads (and perhaps also Flashget cache or all of Flashget) to the RAM-disk and then only later, once all parts are save, move the saved file to a harddrive?

6. Are there any other good RAM-disk applications for XP 32bit (especially freeware/FOSS version that are actively developed)?

another partly related older thread:
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=10348.0

754

Finished Programs / Re: FastShutdown

« Last post by Nod5 on May 06, 2009, 11:15 AM »

Ok, so I need to query the local date format from within the AHK script. I'll try to sort it out tonight.

755

Living Room / Re: The Hunt For Gollum - 40 Min. Fan-Made Movie

« Last post by Nod5 on May 05, 2009, 02:10 PM »

That was the best fan film I've ever seen (not counting the professional fan films in Be Kind Rewind ). Awesome work by all the people involved! 

756

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: TV Show/Movie Library - Discussion

« Last post by Nod5 on May 03, 2009, 05:34 PM »

This is a pretty complex thing that you're after and I have no possibility to work on it ATM.

It has some similarities to what I was aiming for with the AlbumDisplayer plugin (https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=13955.0 ) -- to very quickly, and without stealing too much focus from other apps, let the user browse/filter through a collection of some sort and then do actions (play audio/run game) on the items. Though AlbumDisplayer is currently in a much cruder form than the thing you're requesting and it presupposes that the images are downloaded separately.

I still think that FARR could be a great media library displayer. A plugin that utilizes Everything search could very quickly do live searches for thumbnails, read metadata files (separate apps to download metadata and covers for music already exist) and display results in a slick large-thumbnailed FARR window. The user can then filter further or run or otherwise interact with the content items. That type of setup could work well for music, movies, tv episodes, books, games, image collections, comics -- well almost anything one can collect and represent visually through a thumbnail.

757

General Software Discussion / Re: PDF rotation is annoying. "Rotate View" vs. Real page Rotation

« Last post by Nod5 on April 29, 2009, 05:41 PM »

I think PDF viewers should in general be MUCH more customizable (like allow for adding custom buttons in custom order, not just enable/disable preset toolbars).

PDFTK is good at PDF rotation and easy to create batch jobs for with some scripting ( http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/ ). But you can't currently access it from within a PDFviewer so if you have a lot of single documents to rotate (not at the same time) then It would still be a hassle. If it was easier to add custom toolbar buttons then it would also be easy to create a pdftk script shortcut button.

758

General Software Discussion / Re: Agnitum Outpost Free is alive again

« Last post by Nod5 on April 29, 2009, 01:15 PM »

Nice!
It includes all the important Outpost features IMO.


Filehippo also carries it now
http://www.filehippo...tpost_firewall/tech/

759

Find And Run Robot / Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR

« Last post by Nod5 on April 28, 2009, 04:34 PM »

I'm attaching a modded version of SlenderFARR. The only change from the standard version is that I replaced the scrollbars by importing those from another skin ( mxskin13.skn ).

I've set XP to use non-default values for scrollbar width ( right click desktop > properties > appearance > advanced > scroll = size 11 ). Maybe that's why I and no one else got the blue scrollbars with the standard SlenderFARR.

760

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Everything plugin for FARR

« Last post by Nod5 on April 27, 2009, 01:21 PM »

While we eagerly wait for Vrokolos who waits for the Everything dev to release a new version I wonder if Mouser can give an indication on possible future Everything/FARR integration.

I mean (optionally) using Everything as "search engine" for all FARR searches and then apply regular FARR filtering on top of that.

Does that seem doable in the forseable future (this spring/summer)? Or is it feasible only as a long term project (if even that)?

761

Finished Programs / Re: FastShutdown

« Last post by Nod5 on April 27, 2009, 12:35 PM »

FastShutdown uses the "schtasks" command to output a list of scheduled tasks and then searches for the current date in it. Can someone with english XP installed please check if you have the save date format as my non-english install i.e. YYYY-MM-DD. Just do this: run > cmd > schtasks    and the list will show itself. 

762

Finished Programs / FastShutdown

« Last post by Nod5 on April 26, 2009, 12:17 PM »

;-- Fast Shutdown -- by Nod5
;-- v090426
;-- does a onestep windows shutdown unless there are scheduled tasks later the same day
;-- default hotkeys: (middle click on Start button) OR (Right Shift + Escape)

A quick script for Win XP that I needed myself. ahk & exe in attached zip. I'll package it nicer later.

b48b1bb31a479ac4a3467f5f9297c77f *FastShutdown.ahk
e388781005816e81f7e4d92086a9d2e6 *FastShutdown.exe

[Select]

;-- Fast Shutdown -- by Nod5
;-- v090426
;-- does a onestep windows shutdown unless there are scheduled tasks later the same day
;-- default hotkeys: (middle click on Start button) OR (Right Shift + Escape)

#singleinstance, force
~Mbutton::

MouseGetPos,,,xxid, xxcontr
WinGetClass, xxstart, ahk_id %xxid%
if xxstart = Shell_TrayWnd ;-- if mouse over start button
 if xxcontr = Button1
   goto fastshutdown
return

RShift & Esc::
fastshutdown:
xout =
xvar =
x = %A_Temp%\%A_now%.txt
RunWait %comspec% /c "schtasks > "%x%"",,Hide
FileRead, xvar, %x%
FileDelete, %x%
Loop, Parse, xvar, `n, `r
{
if A_LoopField contains %A_YYYY%-%A_MM%-%A_DD%
 xout = %xout%`n%A_Loopfield%
}
if xout !=
{
MsgBox, 1, Fast Shutdown, %xout%`n`nReally shutdown?
IfMsgBox, OK
 Shutdown, 1
}
else
{
MsgBox, 1, Fast Shutdown, Shutdown in 5 seconds...,5
IfMsgBox, OK
 Shutdown, 1
IfMsgbox, Timeout
 Shutdown, 1
}
return

763

General Software Discussion / Re: Idea: File note

« Last post by Nod5 on April 26, 2009, 11:33 AM »

090426: added ini option to place filenotes for a folder in the folder
http://nod5.dcmembers.com/filenoter.html

764

General Software Discussion / Re: Idea: File note

« Last post by Nod5 on April 26, 2009, 08:32 AM »

skooter1121: good idea, I'll add an .ini option for that later tonight.
jimdoria: Isn't there a risk that anti-malware products (that often rely on file hashes) would flag such files as suspicious? If I remember correctly Kaspersky AV once added something like that to all files it had scanned and that didn't go well with other security software. Anyway, I think it is good with the extra file because then you immediately see if a file has a note or not.

765

General Software Discussion / Re: Announcement: Way Simple Folder Cache for Windows

« Last post by Nod5 on April 24, 2009, 03:43 AM »

Nice! 

I'm linking this up with a previous thread were similar apps are mentioned: https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=5102.0

766

Post New Requests Here / Re: GIMP script to batch split + rotate TIFF images

« Last post by Nod5 on April 24, 2009, 03:21 AM »

Cool! If you think any customization you add might be useful to others too then just post the code and I'll see if I can add it to the program.

767

Find And Run Robot / Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR

« Last post by Nod5 on April 21, 2009, 06:01 PM »

Doh! Now the old blue scrollbars are back again even with 2.55.01!! Weird - I've changed nothing, just rebooted.

768

Find And Run Robot / Re: slenderFARR - a new skin for FARR

« Last post by Nod5 on April 20, 2009, 03:02 PM »

After the update the scrollbars for this skin now look like they should without the need to edit the skinfile. 

769

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Select text then drag to instant txt file

« Last post by Nod5 on April 07, 2009, 02:16 PM »

Hi, I have no drag drop solution but this hotkey alternative made in AHK is pretty quick:
1. select and copy text to save (ctrl+C)
2. select target folder (select folder icon on desktop or select an explorer window)
3. press hotkey (default: AppsKey a.k.a. "file properties menu opener key")

[Select]

AppsKey::
if clipboard =
 return
ifwinactive, ahk_class Progman
{
ControlGet, x, List, Selected, SysListView321, A
x = %A_desktop%\%x%
}
else ifwinactive ahk_class CabinetWClass
 ControlGetText, x, Edit1, A
else
 return

Fileappend, %clipboard%, %x%\%A_Now%.txt
ToolTip,saved: %x%\%A_Now%.txt
sleep 2000
ToolTip
return

edit: though it does not offer a file rename step which you requested. But that shouldn't be hard to add. I'm off in a few secs so can't do it now -- maybe someone else'll pick it up from here.

770

FARR Plugins and Aliases / Re: Everything plugin for FARR

« Last post by Nod5 on April 07, 2009, 01:38 PM »

promising news! 

771

General Software Discussion / Re: Against ellipsis ... (dot dot dot)

« Last post by Nod5 on April 07, 2009, 01:33 PM »

fenixproductions: You're right! Weird -- I was so sure that it was three separate dots when I checked. 

cmpm: thanks, I'll testdrive with vertical tab for a while.

772

General Software Discussion / Re: Against ellipsis ... (dot dot dot)

« Last post by Nod5 on April 05, 2009, 04:19 AM »

I personally like ellipsis - if I can't have the full amount of information, I'd much rather have an indication that parts are missing. It's not like three characters carry a lot of useful entropy if there's another 100 missing. When dealing with stuff like filenames, I tend to insert the ellipsis in the middle, though.

-f0dder (April 04, 2009, 05:49 AM)

I agree about filenames for some (but not all) purposes. I like how the DC contracts long links for instance!

But for browser tabs specifically the available space is radically limited. The ellipsis can take up 50% or more of the information space if you have many tabs open. And we almost always get a sufficient indication that things are missing anyway, because (i) the tab border is reached and a new tab starts and because (ii) the text on the tab is a partial word or otherwise obviously cut off.

A drawback is some possible ambiguity: "SourceFor" COULD be both "SourceForge" with some letters missing or a site actually called "SourceFor". But I'm thinking that ellipsis doesn't help much in such cases either: "Source..." would not add more certainty. We'd still be unsure if it stands for "SourceFor" or "SourceForge" (or any other page titled "Source____" ).

Eoin: But professional how? I guess the ellipsis helps add space between information objects, just like the borders and space between tabs and the whitespace tab margins does. The compact, ellipsis-disabled alternative can look VERY compact. But at least my eyes adapted almost instantly to that. So I dare you to try FF without ellipsis for a week and then post again

fenixproductions/tranglos: Interesting! But Firefox seems to use three dots (see about:config part above), not a single special ellipsis-character.

edit:
BTW the thread Eoin linked ( https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=11405.0 ) describes another use of ellipsis that I'm fine with:

An ellipsis (...) at the end of a menu item indicates that an application needs additional user input to execute the item's command. An ellipsis indicates that the application will display a dialog box before executing the command. However, not all menu items that open additional windows should have an ellipsis. For example, the About item in a Help menu should not end in an ellipsis.

-http://java.sun.com/products/jlf/at/book/Menus2.html

773

General Software Discussion / Re: Against ellipsis ... (dot dot dot)

« Last post by Nod5 on April 04, 2009, 05:00 AM »

I don't know but that's worth checking out. Though it might be more distracting to have the tabs and adress field apart (to the left / at the top).

It is worth mentioning that the TabMixPlus add-on https://addons.mozil...S/firefox/addon/1122 can spread tabs over multiple lines when enough tabs have been opened. It can be fine tuned a lot.

774

General Software Discussion / Re: Against ellipsis ... (dot dot dot)

« Last post by Nod5 on April 04, 2009, 04:36 AM »

Well, a bit obsessive I guess I thought it might be helpful to folks like me who often have A LOT of tabs open simultaneously. But sure, the smaller the device/resolution the greater the need for compactness and smart use of all screen space.

I think the ellipsis case also illustrates how software GUI dev must be refined as user computer literacy is improved. Maybe the ellipses was really needed earlier on to avoid confusion among users. But now most people are very experienced with browsers and how tabs work so ellipsis has instead become a nuisance. Compare to the nagging "are you really, really sure you want to close the window?" warnings that many of us opt to disable. It seems like fewer programs have such warnings by default nowadays. Maybe the ellipsis will similarly vanish in the future. The sooner the better I think.

775

General Software Discussion / Against ellipsis ... (dot dot dot)

« Last post by Nod5 on April 04, 2009, 04:18 AM »

In graphical user interfaces (GUIs) an ellipsis is the three dots ( ... ) inserted when a filename, webpage title or other information item is too long to fit in a tab, windows title bar or other area of the screen. The ellipsis dots signals that there's more information available. That can be useful. But the ellipsis are almost always redundant. They're most often a bad waste of screen space. Remove them and make the world a better and more efficient place! 

The basic problem is that ellipsis are used where other objects already show users that long information is cut off. The ellipsis is redundant! Some examples:

Firefox 3:

Each tab is separated by a few pixels with another color. So even without ellipsis users would still easily separate the tab texts and would still know when a tab title is cut off. "SourceForg" would be more helpful than "SourceF..."

Internet Explorer 7: the exact same problem as in Firefox


Windows Explorer: the vertical line separating the columns and the difference in column background color (grey/white) already tells that information may be cut off.


In these and other cases the ellipsis just hides three letters that could have displayed useful information without adding anything of value. That is bad GUI design! Since ellipsis remove valuable information they should be used ONLY when there's no better (less screen space wasting) way to tell the users that information cut offs may take place i.e. almost never.

Now let's zoom out. Browser tabs is probably one of the most read information area in the world. Every day billions of tabs are opened, read and clicked. Then it is EXTREMELY WASTEFUL to not optimize them by removing all screen space wasting parts. In single cases the problem might seem very small. Ok, now and then a tab ellipsis makes it hard for a users to see which tab is which. So what? The user just clicks the tab to check it. It only takes half a second! Sure. But now scale that up globally to 1 billion instances. That's 17361 8 hour work days wasted! So if my suspicion that the ellipsis wastes some time for most users is correct then the problem adds up to great global inefficiency.

Can we fix this? For end users the ellipsis are sometimes hard or impossible to disable. I have found no way to do it in IE or Windows Explorer. Here's a 2/3 solution for Firefox:

1. enter "about:config" in the Firefox adress field
2. then filter for "ellipsis"
3. doubleclick "intl.ellipsis", in the popup box remove "..." and enter " " (a space).
4. restart Firefox


But a complete and global fix can only come at the developer level. The Firefox devs should disable ellipsis by default.

The FF devs should also consider space optimizing the tabs and GUI in other ways too. In the meantime users can do that themselves.
1. Disable unused toolbars (remove unneeded buttons and combine them on a single toolbar).
2. use small icons
3. Install the add-on Stylish https://addons.mozil...S/firefox/addon/2108 and use the styles below (with slight tweaking) from http://userstyles.org/ to compact the toolbars, tabs and allows more information in each tab.

before & after:


I've combined all the used userstyles into one pack:
compact toolbars, buttons, tabs [multi style pack]
http://userstyles.org/styles/16643

List of included styles (all cred goes to the original scripters!):

by barbiegirl:
TABS: Reveal More Text When Click Icon
http://userstyles.org/styles/15433

Tabs: Move Text Closer To Icon and Closebutton X
http://userstyles.org/styles/16529

TABS: More Text Space - Move Icon to Far Left
http://userstyles.org/styles/14967

TABS: More Text Space - Move CloseButton X Right
http://userstyles.org/styles/14960
--------
by izzy:

FF3 Toolbar Resize
http://userstyles.org/styles/9220
--------
by ben:

Custom Tab Bar Height on Firefox 3
http://userstyles.org/styles/7869

Do you know of more ways to disable unneeded ellipses? Post a comment and I'll update this post with that info. To be continued...