Recent Posts

7726

Developer's Corner / Re: Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 03:51 PM »

But I've found that once I figure something out in WPF/XAML, the solution is a lot easier to implement, a lot more straightforward, and easier to maintain.

-wraith808 (December 01, 2011, 02:58 PM)

Yup, that, and stick to MVVM.

-Ath (December 01, 2011, 03:06 PM)

MVVM itself is also not a silver bullet, and can be a hindrance in some cases.  All of these things (to steer back on subject), from the ribbon (and other UI elements), to .NET (and other frameworks), to MVVM (and other design patterns) are tools.  And the same tool is not useful in all situations.

7727

Developer's Corner / Re: Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 02:58 PM »

I do, when a program that used to start inside of a second now takes 10, and when it flickers all the time displaying menus or switching views. When I built my last system 4 years ago, I started from this, then upped some of the specs even more. I later swapped a video card for one that can play most of today's FPS games at max settings. I used to have a WD Raptor drive for the system partition (until it broke). I really don;t like waiting, so I built a system that didn't make me wait too much. And still, both back than and today, .Net apps flicker like heck and perform most operations with the urgency of a lazy iceberg. Granted, sometimes coders do things in ways that are inappropriate for the platform, but their suboptimal code would not cause significant slowdowns in native C++ or a Delphi apps. And still the apps crash just like they used to, except what used to be "invalid pointer operation" is now "reference not set to a valid object instance" or some such. It's the same darn error! For the user, .Net gives no gain whatsoever, but it exacts the very high price in loss of performance.

-tranglos (December 01, 2011, 02:48 PM)

But none of this is a function of .NET.  I used to be a Delphi fanatic also.  And my first forays into .NET were less than stellar, especially because I was converting Delphi apps to C#.  But nothing that you said applies to *all* .NET apps; they're a function of how they're implemented.  I get no flicker in places that I used to have to code around in Delphi/C++ and use less memory in most cases.  It's overkill for some things, but then again, so was Delphi.

...and yes, suboptimal code will slow things down in Delphi.  I've seen it.  I've dealt with it and had to fix it.  As far as the user getting nothing from .NET, it depends on whether the user is paying for development.  When the user is paying for a product, nothing that the product is written in is going to do anything for the user.  But I've found that once I figure something out in WPF/XAML, the solution is a lot easier to implement, a lot more straightforward, and easier to maintain.

7728

Developer's Corner / Re: Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 02:25 PM »

you can't get to Font or Paragraph properties without those

-tranglos (December 01, 2011, 02:15 PM)

Yes you can.  I know I have, and I'd forgotten that you can click that.  I think the right click menu has it.

UPDATE: I was right... it is the right-click menu.

7729

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2012 Brainstorming, Suggestions, General Discussion

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 01:04 PM »

I put two pledges in this year... I have ideas for 2 more small ones given time: an add-on for RIFT and another desktop gadget for checking RIFT server status and news (they're so easy!)  It just depends on time...

7730

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Canceled NANY 2012 Pledge: Track My Stuff!

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 12:56 PM »

NANY 2012 Entry Information

Application Name	Track My Stuff!
Short Description	Track your items and who you lent them to.
Supported OSes	Windows XP/Vista/7
Setup File	TBA
Description	I have a lot of xbox games because I don't trade them in because I play sporadically.  So when my son's friends come over, they want to borrow games.  I don't mind- but I also don't play enough to notice when they haven't returned them.  This was my solution.
Features	Tracks your items, and who currently has them.  Customizable description fields, and image of item.
Screenshots	Coming Soon
Installation	With .NET 4.0 installed, unzip application to location and run.
Uninstalling	Delete application install location.
Notes	Requires .NET 4.0.

7731

N.A.N.Y. 2012 / NANY 2012 Release: Desktop URL Embed

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 12:51 PM »

NANY 2012 Entry Information

Application Name	Desktop URL Embed
Short Description	Embed the contents of a webpage in the desktop as a gadget
Supported OSes	Windows Vista/7
Setup File	version 1.0.0
Description	Active desktop was supposed to be a big feature on Windows, but it has faded into the annals of history.  Or has it?  It's still there, just not as prevalent.  So when I wanted to embed a webcam view in my Evil Genius desktop setup, I decided to learn about Windows Gadgets...
Features	Embed a URL into your desktop.  Set a refresh if desired and the size of the gadget.
Screenshots
Installation	Double-click the .gadget file.  Allow installation.
Using the application	After installation, the gadget should appear.  Drag the window as desired by the gripper, or click the wrench to adjust the settings.
Uninstalling	Right click on the desktop and select gadgets.  In the window that appears, right click the Desktop URL Embed gadget, and click uninstall.
Notes	Requires IE unfortunately.  The desktop gadget content portion is only IE.

7732

General Software Discussion / Re: RANT: Google UI Developers should be SHOT!

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 12:29 PM »

Uh, they're still in beta?

-Renegade (December 01, 2011, 11:44 AM)

Not an excuse from true definition of beta (if you really want to go there).  And GMail is out of beta, and has been for a while.

They had introduced a black bar at the top with all of your options and menus and stuff that unified with G+ UI.  Now they have some of that stuff hidden under a drop down when you click their name on the left side, and other stuff under a gear on the right side, and yet more stuff when you click your picture on the top right side (which is what I was trying to find... how to change accounts).

7733

General Software Discussion / RANT: Google UI Developers should be SHOT!

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 10:20 AM »

I can get used to most anything in a UI.  Some things are better than others.  The new unified UI really sucked.  But I got used to it.  Then, today, they changed it AGAIN!  Why can't they settle on something and stay with it?!?

7734

Living Room / Re: NaGa DeMon

« Last post by wraith808 on December 01, 2011, 06:45 AM »

Wraith, is it a pen and paper RPG or a board game or video game or what?

-Deozaan (December 01, 2011, 12:08 AM)

It's a Pen and Paper RPG using a generic system.

7735

Living Room / Re: NaGa DeMon

« Last post by wraith808 on November 30, 2011, 08:11 PM »

Well, I may never have completed NaNoWriMo, but I completed my NaGa DeMon project, Forgotten Heroes. It was actually the test bed for my system that I'm using for another project, and I'm pretty happy with it! I need to do some tweaking, but the rules played better than I expected, and my players seemed to enjoy it.

This implementation is a horror/suspense/investigation/thriller type of game, falling squarely into that area occupied by CoC, ToC, Esoterrorists, etc, where players seek out and eradicate the memory of ancient evils so that they can fade from existence. Once I do some editing (had a lot to do in a month, especially with a release at work imminent) I plan to conduct some more playtesting before releasing it and the underlying system. But I'm pretty stoked, and did want to announce it.

7736

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by wraith808 on November 30, 2011, 09:40 AM »

What I'd love to see is an arrangement similar to what  Bandcamp offers musicians:

• a place to host your content
• a point of presence and contact on the web
• the opportunity for community
• backoffice services (billing, payment processing, shopping carts, etc.)
• a rational and fair fee schedule for services rendered

-40hz (November 30, 2011, 09:28 AM)

Check out http://www.fsand.com and http://www.smashwords.com.  It exists, it's just no competition to Amazon or Barnes & Noble right now, mostly because they did something quite smart that the RIAA never did- allowed self-publishing.

7737

Living Room / Re: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

« Last post by wraith808 on November 30, 2011, 07:14 AM »

Presumably contracts are for a certain length of time and not in-perpetuity - what happens when the big six publishers finally realise that Amazon has them in a headlock and they don't renew their contract? Presumably a lot of blank Kindles ????

-Carol Haynes (November 30, 2011, 03:48 AM)

I don't think it's that easy.  It's the DRM that's the problem, not the Kindle.  I think the point is that the DRM is driving sales of the Kindle over other devices as the DRM is kindle specific, rather than, for lack of a better word, open.  So people get locked into the platform.  Sort of like the way DRM on music used to work.  But the same out exists for them- remove the DRM.

7738

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 06:58 PM »

^ +1 and that is a problem and one I suffer from too. If they do things so well as to get us dependent on them/drive the other digital distribution platforms out of business, then the consumer will suffer as they won't have to offer the deep discounts. I see an example of that I'm the digital book industry.

7739

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 02:02 PM »

Reading through, it seems like Steam is more like a disease than a cure. Apparently, it creates more problems than it solves. Am I reading the above wrong?

-Renegade (November 29, 2011, 01:44 PM)

I don't think it creates more problems than it solves, but then again, other people have other opinions.

I think that the ideal solution would be a third party platform that you register your purchases with, no matter where you get them from.  But that will never happen, though it seems that steamworks is making that happen for some games.  As long as you can (1) re-download/re-install your purchases (2) play them offline and (3) there is competition on pricing, I'm happy.

7740

fSekrit / Re: 2011 status report

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 01:43 PM »

Our beta date is next week...



...vodka *does* make everything better.

7741

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 01:40 PM »

GamersGate has been selling games that use Steamworks for quite a while, thus requiring the use of Steam for installation, authentication, etc. Such requirement is listed on the game's page in the DRM section. If it reads "Requires a 3rd party download and account", most likely it's referring to Steam. Valve isn't taking over GamersGate or anything like that, it wouldn't make much sense either.

-Lashiec (November 29, 2011, 12:40 PM)

Darksiders doesn't use Steamworks though.  It uses GFWL (or whatever it's called today).  I see that they changed to use Steamworks- no wonder I couldn't authenticate with my GFWL account.  I was looking forward to getting achievements...

7742

General Software Discussion / Re: Easy Remote access to another PC?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 01:32 PM »

I ran into a problem with troubleshooting - I am unable to see uac demands for password at their end (more accurately, I'm not able to see the password dialogue itself) - so I'm not able to do anything requiring admin rights from within their user account.

-tomos (November 29, 2011, 01:23 PM)

We use it for code reviews and the like, so I'm not sure of how it interacts with password dialogs, so I can't be any help there.  As far as the taking control, on the host computer a control panel should appear at the top of the screen.  A similar control panel will also appear on the viewer's screen at the top of the screen (in full-screen mode) or at the top of the browser window if not in full-screen.



The viewer can click the indicated button to request control; the host will be prompted.  Similarly, the host can click it to give control.

7743

Developer's Corner / Re: Ribbon UI - is it really THAT good?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 10:49 AM »

as long as it works enough to let me get something done with it.

-40hz (November 29, 2011, 09:08 AM)

That's the big thing.  If it works, and your user base is split, assess based on what ribbon will do for your application, and its usability and maintainability from your perspective.

7744

fSekrit / Re: 2011 status report

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 10:47 AM »

work has been eating up pretty much all my time & energy.

-f0dder (November 29, 2011, 10:04 AM)

* wraith808 raises a glass in commiseration. 

7745

Living Room / Re: Hard drive shortage

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 06:34 AM »

And I have a pile of Seagate bricks (45 or so) and 0 WD doorstops to prove it as well.

-Shades (November 29, 2011, 05:12 AM)

I'm exactly the opposite.  I always go with Seagate now after much time using WD in home builds and at work in another lifetime of doing configuration and QA.  And I've never had a Seagate fail on me (the one time I thought it was, it was the cable... go figure), and have had quite a few WD bricks to my name.

7746

Finished Programs / Re: Finished Coding Snack: Separate .txt file at any specified punctuation mark

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 06:32 AM »

^ My sentiment?  I agree with you- that's why we have a consumer economy, even when you aren't selling something.  Everyone doesn't have the time nor inclination to learn certain skills, and that's why those skills are in demand.  I could learn to do all sorts of things around my house, but I'd rather pay someone to do them.  Because spending the money is more convenient to me than spending the time to learn, and the time to code it, where someone else has that inclination.  The same thing with my car.  I know the principles behind a lot of things, i.e. changing the oil, etc.  But I don't want to learn, nor do I care to do it.

7747

Living Room / Re: Steam: Savior or Slayer of PC Gaming?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 29, 2011, 06:15 AM »

GG and Impulse are able to sell most of the games Steam sells without forcing this limit on the client (well Impulse is changing and focusing on North America only, so it leaves Gamersgate). In many cases they have the games before Steam does, especially many of the indie and smaller titles.

-iphigenie (August 30, 2011, 03:57 AM)

I just had the strangest experience with GG... though I like it, I suspect you won't.  I bought Darksiders on sale for $4.99 from GG.  Then I downloaded their installer, and it downloaded all 13.1 GB of the installer, and started it up.  I ran the installer, and was a bit perturbed when it didn't ask me where.  But then at the end, I realized why.  Steam started, and asked me for my activation code.  I entered it, then steam took over, and installed Darksiders into Steam from the files that GG had downloaded.

Giga-what?

I did a double take at that... and I wonder what that means... but it's truly installed in my Steam account.

7748

General Software Discussion / Re: Easy Remote access to another PC?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 28, 2011, 10:11 AM »

For the occasional remote support situation, I've used Fog Creek's Copilot: https://www.copilot.com/

I'm honestly not sure how it compares feature-wise with other solutions, but it has a few attributes that make it work well for me (I only need to do this kind of thing a couple times a year):

  - it's drop-dead simple for the other person to get it going. When I need to use this, the other person I'm helping is generally a completely non-technical user. They just want their printer or whatever to work, and opening an email is about all that I can ask them to do (and have done correctly).  And that's about all I have to ask them to do to get Copilot working.  And if email is the problem, there's a relatively simple code that can be given over the phone.
  - it's free on the weekend.  Since I'm typically doing this for friends and family, the weekend is often when I need this anyway, and if not it's usually OK to wait until then.  If the problem can't wait, it's only $5 for a day-pass, and either party can pay.
  - it uses a server to mediate connecting through a firewall - essential for what I need to do.

-mwb1100 (November 28, 2011, 02:50 AM)

Sound a lot like join.me.  You might want to try that next time you want to do something during the week since it's free then.  Similarly all you have to do is go to the website and click if you're the one being joined to, then give a code to the other party, who enters it on the same website.

7749

General Software Discussion / Re: Easy Remote access to another PC?

« Last post by wraith808 on November 27, 2011, 01:58 PM »

If you haven't already, TeamViewer and LogMeIn are good options. I've tried both on occasion, and find them pretty good.

-Writer (November 27, 2011, 01:42 PM)

I have tried both of these options- join.me is the free, ad hoc version of logmein.  What's so appealing to me about join.me is the fact that as the viewer you don't have to install anything.  It's totally contained within your browser.  Even as the sharer, you don't have to install anything- you just run an executable.  You *can* install something for faster access, but you don't have to- very useful for using on a computer where you aren't going to use it often.  And add to that the fact that there's no registration, and I don't even know *why* they're offering such a good deal.  But I like it.

7750

General Software Discussion / Re: Wave? Good-bye!

« Last post by wraith808 on November 27, 2011, 01:53 PM »

Exactly what was Wave's big idea? I have never been able to determine (to my satisfaction at least) exactly what the idea, paradigm, or unique concept was that lay under Wave.

-40hz (November 27, 2011, 01:25 PM)

Wave's big idea was to an extent G+, without the inherent social aspects, but in real time.  The ability to meet with people and share arbitrary information collaboratively with someone was what wave was supposed to be.  It was just poorly implemented, especially because they were still having technical difficulties.