Recent Posts

776

Finished Programs / Re: tv_out: a shortcut for quickly turning extended desktop on/off

« Last post by Nod5 on March 26, 2009, 04:22 AM »

Hi, you might need to refresh the icons after replacing the file. Try right clicking the desktop shortcut icon, properties > change icon (on XP; I guess there's something similar on W7), the new icons should come up as default, select one of them. Then the desktop icon also changes. Do the same for the other icon. Then the change should stick. If that doesn't work try to reboot once. If that doesn't work then I'm out of ideas (And don't forget that the new .icl should overwrite the old - you can't give it another name or put it in another folder.)
I'm also attaching a less colorful icon.

777

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug] FARR error and freeze if html view mode page tries to close win

« Last post by Nod5 on March 22, 2009, 06:09 AM »

Problem fixed in FARR v2.49.01 - great!

778

Developer's Corner / Re: Frustration with User Feedback

« Last post by Nod5 on March 22, 2009, 05:49 AM »

A lot of wise things have already been said so I can mostly sit back and agree 

Regarding where on DC to post new programs:
I'm with justice in thinking the Coding Snacks forum is a good place to post small, free programs that you've made even if it is not made on request from someone else. Most scripts/programs I write are things I need myself. It is like any other coding snack with the only difference that the requester and maker are one and the same.  I associate the Coding snacks section with (1) small sized, free programs and (2) being open to feedback and collaboration, via request or via code suggested by others.

I also agree with mousers point about separating larger, free DC-coded apps (General Software section)  and non-DC, non-free apps (Announce section).

A repository of small apps made by DC folks sounds great! For proper filtering we'd need a common list of tags to use.

Regarding the lack of feedback: sometimes I wish programs had a "thumbs-up" button. The idea would be that when a user has started the program X number of times (100, 1000 and 10000) a small screen pops up politely asking the user if he/she wants to send a "I've used your programs a thousand times and I still love it, thanks man!"-message. The user clicks a thumbs-up icon, the message is sent, end of story. Since there is no textbox involved there is no risk for the function being used to spam the coder. A potential problem is that many users with experience of nag screens from shareware etc might worry that personal data will be sent or that there are some strings attached. Another problem is that such feedback might become a replacement, and not a complement, to going to the program site/forum and posting some more personal feedback or suggestion. That would be a bummer of course. Anyway, I'm thinking it could be cool for a maker of small programs to just get concrete knowledge of the fact that someone out there has used your little program 10.000 times! For larger programs with very many users that might not be so interesting after a while of course. But maybe the numbers can just be increased for such cases. Wouldn't mouser want to know when a user has opened FARR one billion times?

779

General Software Discussion / Re: Freeware Image Organizer (Especially Tags/Keywords)?

« Last post by Nod5 on March 21, 2009, 08:30 AM »

I saw that http://www.digikam.org/ now works on Windows (via KDE on windows). Haven't tried it though. Might be worth checking out.

Then there's always the crude, manual but also completely lock-in-free solution that I use: datestamped folders and date+times+tags in the filename. It works on any playform. It's not practical if you want a lot of tags for each image but if you're mostly using a small number of tags then it is fine. (To make use of this you also need a good file search tool. Like FARR and/or Everything.)

I use a Bulk Rename Utility macro to autorename new photos with date+timestamp. I then add filename tags in BRU too. But I plan to adapt the code from Tourl http://nod5.dcmembers.com/tourl.html to allow quick adding/removing of tags in filenames in Windows explorer.

780

General Software Discussion / Re: 'Everything' is one FAST file search engine

« Last post by Nod5 on March 21, 2009, 06:09 AM »

A small modification to make multiple search phrases carry over from the FARR input box to Everything:

[Select]

^ev(.*)
Everything Search $$1 | C:\program files\everything\Everything.exe -search "$$1"

-Nod5 (December 05, 2008, 06:52 PM)

I made another small revision in my FARR alias for Everything. Maybe someone else finds use for it too. I'm now using the most simple and quick alias possible: a space at the start of the FARR input box. So " file.mp3" + enter opens Everything and searches for file.mp3. But "file.mp3" does a regular FARR search.

[Select]

Everything Search $$2 | C:\Program Files\Everything\Everything.exe -search "$$2"

and the new regexp:

[Select]

^(?: |ev)( |)(.*|)

The same initial-space-alias could probably also be used for the Everything plugin but I haven't tried that yet.

781

Finished Programs / Re: tv_out: a shortcut for quickly turning extended desktop on/off

« Last post by Nod5 on March 19, 2009, 05:48 PM »

Hey there Rowan! Good to hear that it runs on W7. 

The icon had wrong proportions I suspect. I edited them to be 32x32. So try the attached version (just copy over the old tv_out.icl).

You should be able to permanently use completely different icons by saving two of them as tv_out.icl ( IconSushi is the tool I use for that -- http://www.towofu.net/soft/e-index.php ) and then replace the standard tv_out.icl file with the new one.

782

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

« Last post by Nod5 on March 19, 2009, 05:19 PM »

Welcome to DC davisjt1977!
The default ini is a bit confusing - you have to remove the comment character ( ; ) in it. Check if you've done that. So this won't work:

[Select]

;imagemagickdirectory=C:\program files\ImageMagick-6.5.0-0

this works:

[Select]

imagemagickdirectory=C:\program files\ImageMagick-6.5.0-0

edit: I've now updated the program so that the comment character from now on never gets added to the ini:
http://nod5.dcmember...atesplitmakepdf.html
v090319 ini bugfix

783

Finished Programs / Re: AudioBookSleep

« Last post by Nod5 on March 19, 2009, 05:02 PM »

Great! ghacks is a cool place!

AudioBookSleep v090319b
http://nod5.dcmember.../audiobooksleep.html
090319: if a VLC window is not found then the entire desktop (=all active screens) is screencapped instead
090319b: fixed a pathbug, bundled minicap.exe (thanks and cheers to mouser!)

784

Developer's Corner / Re: 7 Reasons Not to Direct Link to a Developer's Download Files

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

I have mixed feelings about this (speaking generally and not about the case at hand). I acknowledge that app103's arguments have some force. But then there's the convenience factor. I really like repositories-ish ways to download new versions of programs. Like http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/ . Such services can help people keep their software up to date a lot better. That has security benefits for the individual and for all of us since vulnerable computers leads to larger botnets that threaten us all. Maybe a middle way is possible here? Blogs that do separate posts about software mainly aimed at getting readers to know about a software for the first time (makeuseof, lifehacker and so on) should do as App103 suggests. Other sites like filehippo can host/direct link the files. But maybe they could also add some reminder or plea on the site about the value of visiting the source site, make a donation, help out in the official forum and so on?

edit: spelling

785

Living Room / Re: The Greatest Graphic Novel of All Time: Watchmen

« Last post by Nod5 on March 15, 2009, 07:06 AM »

Many great suggestions here already. Let me add one not yet mentioned: The Walking Dead. Presently at issue #59 and it looks like it can go on for hundreds more.
http://www.boingboin...ng-dead-scary-e.html
http://en.wikipedia....iki/The_Walking_Dead

Also, four great comic creators in one small photo:

http://www.boingboin...-clowes-ware-an.html

786

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

« Last post by Nod5 on March 14, 2009, 06:39 AM »

Yes, thanks to Ehtyar too!

TIFFRotateSplitMakePDF v090315, http://nod5.dcmember...atesplitmakepdf.html
v090315: ctrl+drop to skip rotate

787

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

« Last post by Nod5 on March 14, 2009, 05:58 AM »

TIFFRotateSplitMakePDF v090314, http://nod5.dcmember...atesplitmakepdf.html
by Nod5, with help from ewemoa

input: multiimage file.tif with two scanned pages per image (= a bookspread, tilted 90 degrees)
what the script does: rotate 90 degrees, split each image in two (L/R page), output file.pdf with all split images in page order

tiffrotatesplitmakepdf.zip contains .exe , .ahk (source) and md5 hashes. made in Autohotkey. requires: http://www.imagemagick.org/


Thank you ewemoa! 

788

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

« Last post by Nod5 on March 13, 2009, 06:17 PM »

I'm attaching a mockup file that roughly illustrates the format of the input (I used imagemagick to join two tiffs together... so I'm slowly learning something  )

789

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

« Last post by Nod5 on March 13, 2009, 05:34 PM »

Great, that got me going a bit! Rotation: done.

[Select]

mogrify.exe -rotate -90 "___filepath___"

Split in halfs: problems. This gives me one of the two pages on each image. But crops away the other.

[Select]

mogrify.exe -rotate -90 -crop 100%x50% "___filepath___"

But I can't yet grasp how to target the right half of the image via the geometry option
http://imagemagick.o...cessing.php#geometry

When I've sorted the blanks I think this strategy would work (done in steps via AHK):
1. make two copies of the TIFF
2. on copy1 do -rotate -90 -crop 100%x50%
3. on copy2 do __________ [crop that leaves the right hand half of the image]
4. _______ thus combining them like this: copy1subimage1, copy2subimage1, copy1subimage2, ... (or extract them and name the output in that order)
5. make pdf

edit:
on second thought, rotate upside down, chop , rotate back should do it.
Tried to put it together in AHK but it is not running. Some error in the AHK code I think. Time to sleep, I'll try again tomorrow. Anyone else spotting errors?

[Select]

FileCopy, %1%, 1.tiff
FileCopy, %1%, 2.tiff

mogpath = C:\test\ImageMagick-6.5.0-0\mogrify.exe

RunWait, %comspec% /c ""%mogpath%" -rotate -90 -chop 50x0`%

"%A_Scriptdir%\1.tif""
RunWait, %comspec% /c ""%mogpath%" -rotate 90 "%A_Scriptdir%\2.tif""
RunWait, %comspec% /c ""%mogpath%" -chop 50x0`%

"%A_Scriptdir%\2.tif""
RunWait, %comspec% /c ""%mogpath%" -rotate 180 "%A_Scriptdir%\2.tif""

790

General Software Discussion / Re: 'Everything' is one FAST file search engine

« Last post by Nod5 on March 13, 2009, 04:22 PM »

 

791

General Software Discussion / Re: 'Everything' is one FAST file search engine

« Last post by Nod5 on March 13, 2009, 03:33 AM »

New version out now. http://www.voidtools.com/download.php

Friday, 13 March 2009: Version 1.2.1.371

Long list of changes but that's due to making the beta official. Not sure what changed since last beta.
http://www.voidtools.com/Changes.txt

792

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

« Last post by Nod5 on March 13, 2009, 02:13 AM »

Ok, but I got the impression that GIMP scripting would be pretty versatile. I've glanced at ImageMagick (and GraphicsMagick ) before but never gotten around to learn the details (or at least not learned them enough to remember them). So ok, I extend the request to them too so if anyone with experience with them can whip up a script (or rather a long command line string) to do what I'm after in step 1 & 2 then that'd be great. You see this week I have not enough spare time or spare free brain space to myself read manuals for these tools so that's why I'm making a request instead.

793

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

« Last post by Nod5 on March 12, 2009, 05:15 PM »

I request a GIMP script that will batch split and then rotate TIFF images.

I will make a bunch of scans as TIFF images (two booklet sized pages on each image) that I want transformed like this:
1. split in half, 2. rotated , 3. make one pdf of all the rotated, single page image files

I'm only looking for help with step 1 & 2 here.

I've briefly looked into learning GIMP scripting myself (might come in handy) but chances are someone here already knows scripting for GIMP and can kickstart me on this.   

edit: I should add that I my input for this will be one TIFF containing multiple images (not multiple separate TIFF files with one image in each)

794

General Software Discussion / Re: Foxit Reader Multiple Vulnerabilities

« Last post by Nod5 on March 11, 2009, 01:36 PM »

Deozaan: yes I updated on another machine and noticed that this time. So the updater layout was a bit better than I first thought. The "Reader Update" above is just a category, not an update in itself. So the it is pretty clear that there are no more updates in the image above. But still a bit messy. BTW, I think it makes sense for every updater for every program to very sharply distinguish security updates from other updates. Larger font, bold, color, blinking letters, whatever - just declare loud and clear either that there are security updates available or that there are no security updates available. Users should never have to sift through various other add-ons etc to find out the security update status.

f0dder: yeah, I'm hoping that not installing the add-on will prevent the exploit in the first place. But I installed the security update anyway of course.

795

General Software Discussion / Re: Foxit Reader Multiple Vulnerabilities

« Last post by Nod5 on March 10, 2009, 02:18 PM »

Thanks for pointing this out. I had missed it. Thought it was an Acrobat only bug.

The onclear Foxit updates window doesn't help either. Mine reports these updates:

It is at first glance hard to tell which ones are important, which are trial versions and which are security related. I'm thinking that the less add-ons I install the less vulnerable will Foxit be. I'd prefer if there was a "show security updates only" filter.

796

Post New Requests Here / Re: REQ: Independent volume per application for XP

« Last post by Nod5 on March 06, 2009, 11:56 AM »

Yes, I tried that a while ago but without success. See the other thread above. Too bad because it would be really, really useful to have an easy to use, GUI controlled sound proxy (application independent volume control, output to multiple soundcards, switch output from one soundcard to another on the fly...)

797

Post New Requests Here / Re: REQ: Independent volume per application for XP

« Last post by Nod5 on March 05, 2009, 03:14 PM »

Well if someone does find a way to use it on XP then it might be able to do what you're after.

798

Find And Run Robot / Re: [bug] FARR error and freeze if html view mode page tries to close win

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

Cool!   

799

General Software Discussion / Re: Help me back up a virus infected CD (!)

« Last post by Nod5 on March 05, 2009, 12:26 PM »

In addition to the suggestion Nosh made (about a virtualization software) it is a good idea to have a "lab computer" for testing these kinds of things in isolation from the regular computer. With a pretty simple to make SATA power switch we can turn one computer into two. See this: http://lifehacker.co...your-own-sata-switch . This is of course a bit overkill for the case at hand but worth mentioning anyway.

800

Post New Requests Here / Re: [REQ]Zoom in and out in different programs.

« Last post by Nod5 on March 05, 2009, 12:08 PM »

[Select]

send ^{WheelDown}

[Select]

send ^{WheelUp}

Install AHK, save each code snippet to an .ahk file, for each.ahk compile to .exe, deinstall AHK (if you want to).
Or used the attached, already compiled files (but I really recommend installing and playing around with AHK - you'll very soon find yourself making your own small programs with ease and pleasure  )

36dea797d770df7282aba90dcef3fce6 *CWheelUp.exe
dacd60b53475ec06bc81765f67657f9c *CWheelDown.exe