Recent Posts

826

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a good file transfer app

« Last post by allen on April 11, 2006, 10:49 AM »

A few years back, Nullsoft (makers of WinAmp) released an excellent P2P application for exchanging files among an explicitly defined group of trusted friends/peers -- and it worked amazingly well.  AOL forced them to kill it after only a couple of days . . .

Fortunately, anything worth trying to remove is usually picked up by the open source community -- Waste is no exception.

827

Jazper's Software / Re: What is ShoutcastConcierge?

« Last post by allen on April 11, 2006, 09:48 AM »

Internet radio, basically -- but instead of frequency/amplitude based stations, you just plug the web address of the "stream" into your audio player and listen that way.  Whatever you use to listen to music, there's a good chance it can play them -- if not, you can always give VU Player a spin.

You can find shoutcast streams for every taste in music here.

The advantage to Shoutcast Concierge is that you can have a list of favorite stations and see what song is currently playing in each of them - so if you don't like what's on one, you'll know what's playing on the rest -- switch to one you like.

828

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use RSS feeds?

« Last post by allen on April 11, 2006, 09:36 AM »

I'm a little discouraged by the tagline "RSS for bloggers". It sounds like it's very much a tool specifically geared toward bloggers who like to grab content from other blogs they may also want to blog about. Do you think it's a good RSS reader if it is judged by that function alone?

-moerl (April 11, 2006, 09:20 AM)

That's relatively new stuff, I can only vouch for the reading aspect of it -- which was a solid, albeit different, approach to feed reading than your typical e-mail-esque readers.  That said, I think that the blog writing features are more a partnership -- with Qumana.   Don't know if it can be removed or optionally not installed, but Lektora was originally nothing more than a reader and I found it to be quite good for reading.  It was solid before it became "RSS for bloggers".  I'm assuming the reader is still wholly intact.

Note: Lektora is a relatively simple reader, no excess (except maybe the ability to post to blogs, now -- just what was necessary to effectively read your feeds plus the ability to add persistent searches as virtual feeds into your newspaper.  I'd always thought "Lekrota: RSS, to the point" would have made a good slogan -- it's short, sweet, to the point

829

Jazper's Software / Re: What is ShoutcastConcierge?

« Last post by allen on April 11, 2006, 06:09 AM »

You plug in the URL's for shoutcast audio streams -- it monitors them so you can quickly and easily see what's playing on them all without having to go to each of the different websites. . . A program I'd overlooked until you posted asking.  Now, I'm using it . . .

830

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use RSS feeds?

« Last post by allen on April 11, 2006, 05:52 AM »

Now that you mention it, Lektora does look cool as hell . Is the project dead?
But yeah.. I don't like using anything that isn't worked on anymore. Especially since nothing is perfect and can always use improvements.. so if I use software like that with the knowledge that those bugs will NEVER be fixed.. what's the point? May as well use something that is still actively being worked on.

-moerl (April 10, 2006, 12:34 PM)

Lektora does a great job -- and can be manipulated as easily with the mouse or keyboard.  I just wish it was standalone rather than browser integrated.  Anyway, it looks like it's un-abandoned.  They website has had a total (and very much for the better) facelift, and there has been a significant update -- such as the ability to post to blogs as well.

The author is a competent friendly guy who I think put his eggs in that basket, found it a bit more difficult to make a living on an unknown RSS reader than he thought, and had to get a job for a while to rethink his strategy.

At any rate, check it out -- nothing to lose.  I handles feeds elegantly, the persistent searches are a great feature.

831

Site/Forum Features / Re: How to add a link from your webpage to your DonationCredits Donation Page

« Last post by allen on April 11, 2006, 05:45 AM »

Cool deal, going to have to take it for a spin myself.

832

Developer's Corner / Re: How to use transparent png properly even in IE 6 (!)

« Last post by allen on April 11, 2006, 05:44 AM »

IE is the only browser that has had any trouble with PNG images -- AFAIK Firefox and Opera both support them through and through.

Thanks for posting this -- I'd read it (albeit at a different site) but couldn't be bothered to implement it.  I tend to think IE users deserve what they get

833

Official Announcements / Re: Contest - Make a new Banner for Website

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 10:15 PM »

Yuk - I hate the American 'Deep Throat' tone ... sounds like a naff film commercial 

-Carol Haynes (April 10, 2006, 09:38 AM)

. . . and I hate the nasal bordering on anal French pronounciation.  Call me throaty American. It's ironic I live minutes south of French Canada and nearly everyone here speaks French as a first or strong second language.

834

Podcast Radio Show / Re: Podcast Audio Radio Show - Upcoming Show Planning

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 10:11 PM »

irreverent and fun? Now we're talking my language.  I suppose I still have to supress the English dialect I learned in the Navy, eh?

835

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits du Jour - One Software Title Each Day At A Big Discount

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 09:42 PM »

Great link, Patteo.  While PocketPC doesn't do my antiquated palm-loving self much good, the desktop software will certainly torment my obsessie reg-code collecting habbit

836

Living Room / Re: Best digital photo print service?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 06:57 PM »

I like flickr for online photos and know they offer a printing service, but I've never tried it.  Assuming the prints are good (and I imagine they are) it would probably be a good one to try -- their online stuff is good, at any rate.

837

Living Room / Re: Happy birthday Carol H.

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 05:23 PM »

838

General Software Discussion / Re: Luu Tran's wry philosophy of programming

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 05:13 PM »

Xnews is under development again?! I quit using it a few years back, as he'd pretty much stated he wasn't going to be doing any more with it.  I quit checking.

Man, happy day . . . <downloading>

839

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use RSS feeds?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 12:19 PM »

Don't know -- I know where you're coming from, though.  Even an application that is seemingly perfect, knowing it's abandoned just makes me . . . abandon it.  I loved, for example, Lektora -- but it went for a long time looking abandoned.  I think it's back in development again, but . . . I don't feel like launching Firefox or Internet Explorer for it. So it goes.

840

Find And Run Robot / Re: Mayk or Find And Run Robot?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 09:51 AM »

It sort of cuts out the need for the start menu

-allen (April 10, 2006, 08:05 AM)

That's quite a simple approach.
For me, it takes out the need for start menu, windows run box, calculator, alias in opera (for some sites), and sometimes, even takes out the need for file browser (since i have my disk very organized, i can use farr to search for my documents)

-jgpaiva (April 10, 2006, 08:56 AM)

Truth be told, I use it for most of those things things, too . . . perhaps I should have said

"It's cuts out the need for any other software . . . except the software you launch from it."

841

Find And Run Robot / Re: Mayk or Find And Run Robot?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 08:05 AM »

It sort of cuts out the need for the start menu

842

Find And Run Robot / Re: Mayk or Find And Run Robot?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 06:20 AM »

I'm sure it's a great program, but FR+R works better for me.  The reason I use it, as opposed to a tray launcher or something, is simple: I can't be bothered to "configure" everything.  I want to type and have it magically know what I'm talking about.

843

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to learn how to make a webpage. Where can I start?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 06:06 AM »

It won't take a year to make a website with html, it's nothing like trying to learn a programming language.  You won't be building the csszengarden immediately, but you shouldn't have any trouble picking up enough to build a basic, functional page in under a week.  Laying out a page is really quite easy -- it's getting into the deeper stuff that gets more tedius -- block level stuff, structuring for css, styling with css . . .

When it's all said and done, though -- it's not that difficult.  The hardest part is the artistic part -- trying to figure out how to make it look good.  That's not my forte . . .

844

Find And Run Robot / Re: Mayk or Find And Run Robot?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 05:56 AM »

FR+R gets the super-efficient smart software prize, loses points for clicky-clicky-mouse users and both lose in the name department

FR+R is immensely keyboard friendly, hence my extreme dependence on it.  Those buttons on mayk . . . <shrugs> Meh, what's the point when you've got a snappy little command line?

845

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to learn how to make a webpage. Where can I start?

« Last post by allen on April 10, 2006, 05:48 AM »

I'd advise against nvu, or anything WYSIWYG editor -- especially if your initial goal is to learn how HTML works.  It's like driving a car -- you're better off to learn on a manual transmission. Learn that, you can drive anything later on.

That said, the websites listed here are good resources, they don't offer much for the fledgling would-be web developer.

That said, I strongly recommend HTML Dog.  Their stuff is, suprisingly, as easy to read as it is competent -- wish they had this stuff around when I was learning HTML  HTMLDog is mindful of web standards as well -- so you won't just be learning how to get by, you'll be learning how to craft succinct, proper (x)html -- a feat most wysiwyg editors don't do themselves.  If you want to do something, do it right . . . right?

As far as easy to edit pages go, you could give my Wiki a try -- though the template is the only place html is used, it's fairly easily managed.

846

Best Music Service / Re: tech crunch article comparing music services

« Last post by allen on April 09, 2006, 09:44 PM »

I apologize, I might be dyslexic, I read it crap:music ratio which made more sense as a reason to leave it out.  Had I read more carefully, I could have saved myself the post

847

Best Music Service / Re: tech crunch article comparing music services

« Last post by allen on April 09, 2006, 08:29 PM »

Why not say they're leaving it out because their music:cr*p ratio is so high compared to the others?

-tsaint (April 08, 2006, 08:47 AM)

I wouldn't quite phrase it that way.  I'd just say their mainstream to obscure taste ratio is incredibly low.

They have an incredibly high quality database, it just happens to be a very diverse database -- much of which you're not likely to enjoy.  Not so much because it's crap but because it's diversity.  I love their bluegrass, new age and electronic selection (and some pop-rock), but find a lot of their stuff to be, to me, abysmal -- that isn't to say it's bad.  For me to say it's bad would be downplaying Hirudin's taste in music.

That's the thing about a service that dares to grab up such a varying selection of music from such diverse genre's -- you end up with stuff everybody hates as much as they enjoy the stuff they love.  Most music services are too mainstream to have anything as "good" or as "bad" as emusic.

My 2 cents, anyway.

848

Living Room / Re: More secure passwords... New/Old thoughts

« Last post by allen on April 09, 2006, 05:09 PM »

Your inverting is a great idea.  I've, since before "leet" speak became popular, used a form of it for my password -- an example of a long-since outdated one is
c)olc)10n

Which is "coolcolon", but replacing some of the o's with zeros and others still with "uppercase" zeros nev*abl3 is another I used once upon a time.  "inevadable" or "inevitable", with the "uppercase 8" in there

849

General Software Discussion / Re: Is there anyway to automate the the bat ! i.e. check mail every 15 minutes.

« Last post by allen on April 08, 2006, 10:17 PM »

I'm not popular, but it has saved me on many occasions when I forgot about my family's birthdays

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General Software Discussion / Re: Is there anyway to automate the the bat ! i.e. check mail every 15 minutes.

« Last post by allen on April 08, 2006, 09:50 PM »

Sure -- in the account properties, check out the . . . I think "transport" section, you can set an interval to check.

You should also check out the scheduler, you can have messages automatically send (so it remembers birthdays even if you don't), automatically backup periodically, etc.

Edit: That was post 300!