Recent Posts

8051

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Firefox security addons?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 19, 2008, 04:13 AM »

Is there an add-on similar to AdBlock Plus for IE 7?

-Deozaan (August 10, 2008, 06:30 PM)

Perhaps you already know this: http://www.admuncher.com/

Not free though.

-sri (August 16, 2008, 11:36 PM)

Is there an add-on similar to AdBlock Plus for IE 7?

-Deozaan (August 10, 2008, 06:30 PM)

Try the free and excellent IE7Pro, which has many other cool features too. I was very happy with it when I used Internet Explorer 7 for a while before returning to Firefox when the new Firefox 3.0 came out and was faster than IE on my computer. I don't know how I could live with IE before I found IE7Pro :-).

-Jesper Hertel (August 17, 2008, 12:25 PM)

Thanks for the info, and sorry for "off-topicing" the Firefox thread to ask about IE.

8052

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Truely "Live" Taskbar Thumbnails Previews for Vista

« Last post by Deozaan on August 19, 2008, 03:24 AM »

You don't have to slide any of your game windows out of the way. Just use the Windows task bar to select them and it should bring them to the front.

There's also alt-tab which I think shows live previews of all windows at the same time. Though I'm not sure about that since I haven't used Vista for over 1.5 years now.

8053

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Keyboard & Mouse cleaner

« Last post by Deozaan on August 19, 2008, 03:13 AM »

Recently my antivirus has flagged this as a threat and automatically quarantines it whenever I try to run it or just randomly throughout the day. I know it's just a false positive (I was using it a week ago with no problems), but I don't think my AV has an option for exceptions.

It seems as though I can run the AHK script just fine without it being quarantined, and in fact with AHK installed I can compile the script myself and run it without my AV removing the file. However, if I compile the script to an exe then it has the default AHK icon.

Skrommel, Is it possible for you to provide the icon and a quick tutorial on how to compile an AHK script with the icon?

Thanks in advance!

8054

Living Room / Re: The 5 Most Significant Online Property Search Websites - Parts 1 through 5

« Last post by Deozaan on August 18, 2008, 10:25 PM »

Looks like I'm moving to Oklahoma where the prices are "only" $125k.

8055

General Software Discussion / Re: Does it make sense to disable the windows swap file?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 17, 2008, 06:10 PM »

Thanks tomos, PageDfrg gave me the option to defrag my pagefile when I reboot. It says it is 2 fragments, so it doesn't appear too badly fragmented.

When I disabled the pagefile, I also deleted the actual file. So it had to be created again once I enabled it. When I enabled it, I'm pretty sure it's just how it was before. I just let the system decide how much disk space to use, which is 2GB just like my RAM.

I'm not exactly sure what started up the Out of Memory issues for IE though. It only happens if I leave Gmail or iGoogle or Google Reader open for a while. I don't normally use IE but I have a lot of e-mail and RSS subscriptions, etc., on my old Google account, so to be logged in to both of them at once I use IE for the old one.

8056

General Software Discussion / Re: Does it make sense to disable the windows swap file?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 17, 2008, 03:27 PM »

Deozaan: weird, I ran 32bit XPSP2 with 2 gigs and no pagefile for years without problems - except for one or two games where I had to temporarily re-enable the pagefile.

As for system running slower after re-enabling pagefile, grab sysinternals' "contig" tool as see if the file is fragmented or not.

-f0dder (August 17, 2008, 01:52 PM)

Well, like I said, I'm still getting the out of memory errors in IE for Google sites even with the pagefile enabled again, so I'm not sure if that's related.

As for contig, it just tells me "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process."

And by the way. Don't try to use Unlocker on the pagefile or your computer will BSOD.

8057

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone Know of a Multi-Monitor Simulator for Software Testing?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 16, 2008, 01:11 PM »

Here's a hardware solution that doesn't require two monitors:

If your video card has two outputs and your monitor has two inputs you can enable dual monitors by plugging both outputs into your single monitor. Then just click the button on the monitor that switches what input to display.

8058

General Software Discussion / Re: Does it make sense to disable the windows swap file?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 16, 2008, 01:07 PM »

How much RAM do you have?
I wouldn't do this If I had less than 2 GB Ram

-masu (August 16, 2008, 12:06 PM)

2GB in XP Pro SP3

8059

General Software Discussion / Re: Does it make sense to disable the windows swap file?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 16, 2008, 11:54 AM »

When I disabled my pagefile from this thread, I didn't notice any speed difference with my computer. Which is a cool thing.

But shortly after I disabled it, I started getting out of memory errors in Internet Explorer on Google related pages (Google Reader, iGoogle, Gmail, etc.). I also installed a VM with Vista so I enabled the pagefile again to allow the VistaVM to run with more memory.

Since enabling my pagefile again, the out of memory issues for Google sites in IE still happen (which I think means they're unrelated), I've gotten one pagefile related BSOD and also my computer just seems slower because I really notice when it has to restore the paged memory from the hdd.

8060

Living Room / Re: Enter The Matrix game has a prob on mah comp...

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 11:18 PM »

You should try contacting tech support for the company that makes the game.

8061

Living Room / Re: The Root of Game Piracy

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 09:25 PM »

Piracy is just stealing. Putting a fancy name on it is like trying to pick up a turd by the clean end.

-tymrwt33 (August 15, 2008, 09:11 PM)

I think that's the point of calling it "piracy." Seafaring pirates were not the romantic, fun loving, good hearted adventurers we see in the media today. Pirates were thieves who looted, murdered, and plundered. That's not really a fancy name or a pleasant title.

8062

General Software Discussion / Re: Your most used SPECIAL programs

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 09:18 PM »

Alright, I finally thought of one of my most frequently used and underappreciated applications. This is one of the first things to go on my PC after a fresh install and I seriously hate using other computers when I need this and it's not there.

PowerToy Calculator


I use it primarily because it's smart enough to follow order of operations, it can track variables, and it has a history so you know what numbers you were typing in, what answers you had, etc. It knows the values of specific mathematical constants, such as pi and e, can perform powers and roots, etc. It's also smart enough that you can type in an equation and just keep pressing enter for it to keep calculating the values.

It even has advanced graphing abilities that I never use (Graphmatica or a real Graphing Calculator work best for graphs) and probably lots of other powerful features I never use.

But nothing beats being able to quickly finger my way across the NumPad, looking at the screen to be able to see mistakes and changes and edit or view previous solutions. It's such a vast improvement over the standard Windows Calculator that I actually replace the exe file in my system32 directory with the PowerToy Calculator.

I could go on and on. It's impressive and very useful!

8063

Living Room / Re: What do you do during your free time?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 08:59 PM »

I'm not a programmer by profession (yet?) so in my free time I'd rather be coding or playing video games. 

8064

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter For August 14th, 2008 - Codename "Software Summer Sizzle"

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 08:51 PM »

Great newsletter!

As for the information on the giveaway/discounts, I think you should do the giveaway first to let people use the software and write about how awesome it is, then a discount the next month or later so people can get hyped up about buying the software.

8065

Site/Forum Features / Re: An Idea: Make it Easy For DC Users To Show A Page of Their Posts

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 08:48 PM »

I like it!

8066

FlipSuite and Flipbook Printer / Re: Nice youtube tutorial of how to use Flipbook Printer

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 08:19 PM »

Those TinkerNut video tutorials are pretty cool.

8067

Living Room / Re: What is a mouser? What does it mean to mouser someone?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 07:46 PM »

Okay, so I was the only one who thought it was a cat that was good at hunting mice...

*Sigh*

-Stoic Joker (August 15, 2008, 07:38 PM)

That's the noun, not the verb.

8068

Living Room / Re: DC Social Club Love-In

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 01:49 PM »

Every once in a while Allen will tell me about the latest social website and get me to sign up, but that's usually about as far as I ever get with them. I just don't understand them, I guess. But anyway, if you want to find me, I'm on:

Pownce
Twitter
Plurk

Last.fm
WhatPulse
MyBlogLog
Blogger
YouTube
Digg

EDIT: Added links.

8069

Living Room / Re: Skimp or splurge?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 01:36 PM »

I bought a screwdriver with 6 bits at the dollar store. I used it without complaint for a few months, but then while working inside my computer I found out why it was only a dollar.

I don't know if the bits softened with time or I just never used it on any screws that were really tight until then, but those screwdriver bits seemed only as hard as refrigerated butter. I couldn't believe how easy they bent and became unusable.

Thanks to the good advice of app103, I went to a hardware store and spent about $15 on a screwdriver set with a lifetime guarantee. I have absolutely no complaints about this new one and it was worth "splurging" for a good set of tools that don't fall apart when you're dealing with the internal workings of a PC (or anything else that requires a screwdriver).

8070

Living Room / Re: Advice: Never use your ISP provided email address

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 01:14 PM »

That's the beauty of the method I use. Nobody sees the name+xyz@gmail account. In fact, they don't see Gmail at all. They see xyz@mydomain.com which is forwarded to [email protected] behind the scenes.

And with my host's control panel, it's not hard to mass edit all my forward-only e-mail accounts to change the forwarding address if my Gmail account finally is overrun with spam.

But let's put it this way: I've been using this method with my current Gmail account, which I've had for over two years now, and the only spam I ever get is an occasional newsletter from Xara, who just won't remove me from their mailing list.

-Deozaan (July 20, 2008, 08:18 PM)

But what do you do if you DID want to reply to the sender (it wasn't spam)?  Then they would know your address.

-jojo99 (August 15, 2008, 04:46 AM)

Gmail lets you set up other accounts (Settings -> Accounts) to send mail as, and you can automatically have it use those accounts as the reply-to addresses for any e-mail sent to those addresses. Though you are limited to somewhere around 8 "accounts."

I don't usually reply to most of the mail I use this method for (signing up at websites that require e-mail addresses, etc.) but I'm currently using this method for my college e-mail address since it's so convoluted and long. Something like firstnamelastname(at)randomletter.college.edu. So I had to go into my college e-mail account and forward it all to my Gmail account, and I can reply using Gmail and they still think I'm in the stupid university web mail.

An even though I'm taking the time to use all these precautions with my own domain and Gmail, I have received, like you, perhaps 5 or less spams to this Gmail account since I started using it in 2006. I've been very careful with this account in the first place, not using it to sign up at dubious looking sites, but if I should accidentally let my e-mail address out to a spammer, I'll more than likely be able to just disable that single account on my domain and continue to be spam free once more.

8071

Living Room / Re: What is a mouser? What does it mean to mouser someone?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 12:56 PM »

I've been mousered!

Though I think 2 hours isn't an uncommon amount of time for mouser to just disappear in the middle of a conversation, I think I'd consider myself mousered if just 10-20 minutes passed without so much as a "brb" or "bbl."

8072

Living Room / Re: Request: Does anyone know a good "pet" game?

« Last post by Deozaan on August 15, 2008, 12:54 PM »

animal crossing

-jpfx (August 15, 2008, 12:17 PM)

Animal Crossing is a good game with which you can easily find yourself playing it every day for at least 5-15 minutes for a year or two since there's no way to "beat" the game, but I wouldn't exactly call it a pet simulator/pet game. All the animals speak and wear clothes and walk upright and have houses, etc. Basically just like humans except they're animals.

8073

Living Room / Re: AINOP Wireless

« Last post by Deozaan on August 11, 2008, 02:15 PM »

Hooray!

Though I hate to be a cynic, I can't help but wonder how long it will last.

8074

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Bits du Jour looking for Freelance Writers

« Last post by Deozaan on August 11, 2008, 01:52 PM »

What about the occasional face to face meetings?

8075

Living Room / Re: The Root of Game Piracy

« Last post by Deozaan on August 11, 2008, 01:45 PM »

Good read.