Recent Posts

776

General Software Discussion / Re: Are we heading towards a tech armageddon?

« Last post by Target on May 31, 2012, 12:11 AM »

I see your Jedi, and raise you an Indiana Jones~!

-Renegade (May 30, 2012, 10:58 PM)

that's not innovative...

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: DVD Decrypter - DVD ripping tool - Mini-Review

« Last post by Target on May 30, 2012, 01:47 AM »

Yes, and I think ImgBurn - it's listed in the ini - might be optional.

-4wd (May 30, 2012, 01:25 AM)

If I remember rightly (and most here probably already know) ImgBurn is an option in DVD shrink (you can write straight to disc)

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: DVD Decrypter - DVD ripping tool - Mini-Review

« Last post by Target on May 30, 2012, 12:55 AM »

+1 for RipIt4Me

it requires both DVD Decrypter AND DVD shrink, but it greatly streamlines the ripping process

there's another little tool that's required but I can't remember the title off the top of my head (Fix VTS?)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Are we heading towards a tech armageddon?

« Last post by Target on May 30, 2012, 12:43 AM »

so it's all relative?

surely innovation is pretty much by definition a paradigm shift, and in the absence of such a shift products evolve.

products evolve all the time as designs, materials, and methodologies are refined.  Many of these refinements are themselves the result of innovations upstream, though that doesn't necessarily make the end products innovative (though FWIW, many of the products are only possible because of innovations upstream)

and paradigm shifts are almost certainly the result of evolution.  As we build our knowledge and experience we see new possibilities, many of which were previously beyond our capabilities.

as to the armaggedon part, I think that's unlikely

Unless the metaphorical zombie apocalypse comes and we all end up living in walled compounds out in the desert (anyone read The Passage by Justin Cronin?), at which point all this becomes moot, or we'll be sending posts by carrier pigeon (or seagull?)

In the meantime products will continue to evolve, and to innovate, though not all innovations will be apparent to us as consumer's.  As humans we can't do things any other way. 

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General Software Discussion / Re: Are we heading towards a tech armageddon?

« Last post by Target on May 29, 2012, 08:26 PM »

so what I get from that is that regardless of whether it's actual or percieved, an innovation is an innovation if someone says it is?

 

FWIW I have a technical background so it's probably safe to say I have a different view on this to you - i tend to view innovation in a technical light, and fashion is of little interest to me (in fact I'd go so far as to say that fashion is never innovative)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Are we heading towards a tech armageddon?

« Last post by Target on May 29, 2012, 06:42 PM »

I won't pretent to understand all you seem to be saying or implying, but it seems to me that a significant amount of the 'innovation' we see is just marketing hype.

adding gadgets or functionality to a device that doesn't enhance the performance of the device or our interaction with it is certainly not innovative, but because we've been conditioned to consume we eat this stuff up (how many people do you know that 'update' their phones at least once a year, whether they need to or not)

unfortunately I also think your SUV analogy was a poor one - SUV's are a classic example of the 'clever' marketing of what was previously a utility vehicle.  By making it 'fashionable' they were able to generate a whole new market.  Were they innovative?  not by a long shot, and all they're doing now is incorporating features and functionality that had been common in passenger vehicles for years.  Net result is that some (?) of their previous functionality is lost or compromised as they become more like the passenger vehicles they're trying to differentiate from

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Living Room / Re: Selection of FREE maths textbooks (.PDF format) available from bookboon.com

« Last post by Target on May 23, 2012, 07:04 PM »

worth noting that it's not just math books available for download - there are 'free' bundles available from most (if not all, I didn't check)) of the categories on their site

Subjects include (broadly) accounting/finance, engineering, law, management/marketing

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General Software Discussion / Re: EXCEL - ACCESS hybrid without limitations

« Last post by Target on May 22, 2012, 06:25 PM »

Rather than asking for a generic solution to an as yet unknown problem, you'd be better served defining the problem before looking for an answer

Are these 'limitations' actually impacting what you want to do? and how - there might be a solution or work around)

It's worth remembering that while they might be 'similar', spreadsheets and databases are actually very different animals, and you wouldn't necessarily want to try and do things in one that you can do in the other.

That said, Excel and Access can and do work well together and share functionality (using VBA)

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AutoHotkey / Re: AHK Code Highlighting and Code Completion in Notepad++ ?

« Last post by Target on May 09, 2012, 09:50 PM »

I did a Google (other search engines are available) and it looks like code highlighting and completion of AHK in Notepad++ is a mess!

Various xml language files floating around, but nothing official.

A lexer plugin that hasn't worked since Notepad++ 5.7 (current version 6.1.2)

Please someone tell me that a neat solution exists?
 Or do I have to use a different app to write AHK scripts?

-Ampa (May 09, 2012, 09:26 PM)

that pretty much sums it up - various attempts, but nothing that is 'complete'

not sure that the offerings are any better for any of the other editors, but I prefer notepad++ so YMMV

best I could offer would be to try all the various options and settle on one that you like (or that you can best tolerate)

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General Software Discussion / Re: web dir in excel

« Last post by Target on May 09, 2012, 06:15 PM »

thanks for your input
I will use the tools you mention
I have realized that EXCEL is not the best solution to store files in
trying to store a large amount of potentially big files, will make it irresponsive and prone to corruption and data loss
creating a "local webpage", is an interesting idea, but would require more programming skills
I think I will go that way and see what I can do :/

EDIT: if only EXCEL had a function to download the web link of a file in a cell to a predefined folder and then store the hyperlink of that file to the next right cell, it would be sufficient

-kalos (May 09, 2012, 03:07 AM)

I'm still playing around with options, but FWIW I believe you can do what you want with excel, but it probably isn't a very efficient way to do things. 

Reading your response again I'm wondering whether you were thinking of embedding the downloaded files in your spreadsheet?  This is NOT a good idea and could easily result in the consequences you mention.  Inserting hyperlinks to a local copy on the other hand is quite safe and easy to do.  Still not very efficient though (Excel is not meant to be used as a launcher)

The local webpage option may not require any coding skills at all - there are plenty of apps that will spider a page/site and duplicate that on your machine, complete with local references to linked files.  Based on my experience so far, WinHTTrack may not be ideal (it was just too slow), but I'll have a look and see what else I can find (anyone got any suggestions?)

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General Software Discussion / Re: web dir in excel

« Last post by Target on May 09, 2012, 12:22 AM »

Kalos

I've only just had the opportunity to sit down and spend some time on this and I need some input from you

I'm still a bit sketchy on your workflow, ie you said the source data (ie the excel sheet) came from the website.  I've been trolling around the site and I can't see anywhere where I might download such a file - this leads me to the conclusion that the data has been sourced manually and then entered into a spreadsheet (yes?, no?)

Also I don't understand why you're trying to use Excel for this when there might be better tools for the job.  The only reason i can think of is that there is some other sort of analysis going on here (though even if there is it doesn't mean Excel is a good tool for this) - can you expand on this a bit please

FWIW, I just ran HTTrack to create a local copy of the web page.  There could be better tools, but this is one I've used before - it took just over 4 hours () and I ended up with a copy of all the linked documents, and a copy of the page with all the links pointing to the local files (about 300M in total)  

Conversely DownThemAll pulled all the linked PDF files in about 15 minutes, but of course there's none of the associated info, or any means of identifying what each document is.  You could probably save a local copy of the page and update the links as appropriate, but the source appears to be pretty inconsistent syntactically (though this approach has promise)

EDIT: added some additional info

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Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Target on April 29, 2012, 06:33 PM »

After a visit to the whore house, a man notices green lumps on his willy, so he goes to the doctor, very concerned.
“That’s serious” says the doctor.   “You know how wrestlers get cauliflower ears?”
“Yes” says the man seriously.
“Well” says the doctor “You’ve got brothel sprouts.”

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General Software Discussion / Re: Can Anyone Explain This? PDF Won't Print Except in Browser

« Last post by Target on April 25, 2012, 07:48 PM »

no answers, but we have had similar experiences with PDF's that will not print on one printer, but will print quite happily on another...

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Living Room / Re: Spoons

« Last post by Target on April 17, 2012, 05:50 AM »

Spoons are patented?

-rgdot (April 17, 2012, 05:00 AM)

not that I know of, but some are plated

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Living Room / Re: Spoons

« Last post by Target on April 16, 2012, 11:54 PM »

Isn't it about time for this topic to fork?

-cranioscopical (April 16, 2012, 11:30 PM)

did you want to spork about something in particular, or just spend some tine on something saucier

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Living Room / Re: Spoons

« Last post by Target on April 16, 2012, 09:40 PM »

clearly common sense has desserted stephen66515

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General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... a flexible merge software.

« Last post by Target on April 16, 2012, 09:14 PM »

Unless I'm completely mistaken, these types of files are almost certainly proprietary (to the software) binary files and, thus, are going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to merge together.

-skwire (April 16, 2012, 08:30 PM)

that's what I was thinking - perhaps it's time to explore another option (sounds like you need something browser based that runs across a network...)

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General Software Discussion / Re: web dir in excel

« Last post by Target on April 12, 2012, 12:45 AM »

I have the excel with some data
I will have to append at the beginning of the text of each cell in all rows of a specific column, and the http://domain.com/

Then, the created links must be automatically replaced with the paths of the linked files, after the files are downloaded locally

By this way, I we have a dynamically updated excel with the updated versions of the files from the server

-kalos (April 12, 2012, 12:23 AM)

I go that much, I was wondering where you sourced the data in your spreadsheet, and why Excel instead of something else

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General Software Discussion / Re: web dir in excel

« Last post by Target on April 11, 2012, 05:57 PM »

I use EXCEL 2003

an example would be a list of all these PDFs: http://www.efloras.o...=12&page_id=1155

-kalos (April 10, 2012, 04:24 PM)

just trying to understand the workflow here - looking at your example, I'm wondering why you're using Excel (I can only assume the records have been supplied in that format) instead of a downloader (like the DownThemAll xtn for Firefox - though of course this doesn't do the indexing and launching part).

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General Software Discussion / Re: Next big opportunity - ditching the laptop in favor of mobile computing

« Last post by Target on April 09, 2012, 07:54 PM »

To be part innovative part facetious, it could be like playing a musical instrument - half notes and half chords.

-TaoPhoenix (April 09, 2012, 07:49 PM)

I thought the big attraction of these devices was the absence of cords?

796

General Software Discussion / Re: web dir in excel

« Last post by Target on April 09, 2012, 07:05 PM »

I have an EXCEL file and I want to select some cells and append to the begining of the text of each of these cells another specific text (which is constant)

then, urls will be formed in these cells and I want to download the files that these urls point to and make the files open when I click the relevant cell

-kalos (April 04, 2012, 03:20 PM)

I'd like to have a game with this, got some examples?

also, what version of office are you using?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Recommend a Free simple Database program for Windows XP

« Last post by Target on April 04, 2012, 11:56 PM »

Sounded like basic stuff was all that was required.  If the level of functionality required would be met by a Word table that one could filter and query, a database manager might be overkill.

-AndyM (April 04, 2012, 11:48 PM)

+1 - I think we're a bit short on detail to make any sort of worthwhile recommendations

the requirement for a DB might be justified if the OP was doing lots of complex filtering and/or analysis (though I can't imagine what or why), but otherwise it's more like cracking a walnut with a sledgehammer.

there are also plenty of cataloguing suites around that would probably fill the bill without building a custom solution

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Post New Requests Here / Re: Request for a stand-alone menu bar, that is capable of displaying sub-menus

« Last post by Target on April 03, 2012, 01:44 AM »

we did something similar here, though that was intended as a prompt rather than a menu

is this like what you were looking for?

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Living Room / Re: 800 lb Paper Airplane?

« Last post by Target on April 02, 2012, 10:42 PM »

Were you a sky pilot you'd be preaching to the quire.

-cranioscopical (April 02, 2012, 09:47 PM)

were I a sky pilot I'd take this father

It's the Wright thing to do, you goose.
Remember, though, if you and your avian chums fly over the rainbow--doubtless a labour of Hercules--you'll see many Hughes.

-cranioscopical (April 02, 2012, 09:47 PM)

over the rainbow? nooo, that would make me disney

  (in case you didn't realise I was dyslexic, this is me flipping you the bird)

800

Living Room / Re: 800 lb Paper Airplane?

« Last post by Target on April 02, 2012, 08:37 PM »

Think so? You must be in a spin, time to bale out.

-cranioscopical (April 02, 2012, 05:54 PM)

I wouldn't (d)ream of it

So that's your pitch. It's an awkward construction — trust you to butcher it.

-cranioscopical (April 02, 2012, 05:54 PM)

this is becoming a soar point, never the less I shall try and spruce it up