Recent Posts

876

General Software Discussion / Re: Benchmarked: Ubuntu vs Vista vs Win7

« Last post by Eóin on February 04, 2009, 06:31 PM »

True it's easy to attack benchmarks, but these seem like a particularly eclectic set of choices to me.

There are a tonne of cross platform apps out there that they could have run. Sure then people would go and poke holes in those particular setups but it would still be a huge leap closer to "real-world tests".

877

General Software Discussion / Re: Benchmarked: Ubuntu vs Vista vs Win7

« Last post by Eóin on February 04, 2009, 06:20 PM »

For the most part it's the final test which interests me most and Windows wins out there. And honestly, who gets a quad core, 6gb machine and only runs a bunch of file copying tests, pathetic I got to say.

878

General Software Discussion / Re: WINDOWS 7 THREAD (ongoing)

« Last post by Eóin on February 03, 2009, 01:39 PM »

And what about Linux distros that are 'sold' bundled with Gigabytes of software. Surely they should play by the same rules and sell 'application free' products too. Free download distros could also be restricted to 'application free' ISOs so that users have to choose the applications they want.

-Carol Haynes (February 03, 2009, 01:27 PM)

Yeah I never got that, expect that I suppose you really have to go after MS first. But if things are to be done fairly then the EU should have some equally serious issues to go after Apple with.

As for stuff being bundled free, well we all know every thing we're not charged for just has it's cost absorbed in the things we do pay for.

879

General Software Discussion / Re: Hard Disk Heat

« Last post by Eóin on February 02, 2009, 03:42 PM »

Also for your own piece of mind, how the hard disk was positioned while in operation should have had zero effect to the best of my knowledge.

880

Developer's Corner / Re: Programming Paradigms

« Last post by Eóin on February 02, 2009, 03:28 PM »

Also I would add read, read, read

I find that even if what you read is going a bit over your head at the time the concept usually sticks enough so that when you encounter a need for it in practise you know exactly where to go back to for help. Then with some material in one hand and the relevant problem to a apply it to in another you're in the ideal learning environment.

A great thing to google when trying go get exposure to a new language is "<language-name> idioms". That usually throws up some good and broadly applicable advice.

881

Developer's Corner / Re: Lets talk about GUIs.

« Last post by Eóin on January 31, 2009, 12:25 PM »

Can't say I tried it to be honest. the GPL limitation was an instant turn off. Also in addition I don't tend to really like these all-encompassing frameworks.

While on the subject again though here is another to add to the list- eGUI by John Torjo. Seems a bit quick to claim he's the bee's knees but nonetheless his work is respected.

eGUI is the replacement for his earlier, and already mentioned above, Win32 GUI Generics library.

882

Developer's Corner / Re: The D programming language - an interview with the author

« Last post by Eóin on January 30, 2009, 08:32 PM »

I'm not sure I agree with you on C++ mouser. Having read (and tried to digest) Imperfect C++ by Matthew Wilson, author of the STLSoft libraries, I've had all my faith in the language restored. The book is a 500+ page tomb of everything that's wrong (well imperfect) with C++ and very applicable solutions to each one.

Honestly as it stands I can only see C++0x (which I believe is just an informal name while under standardization) improving the situation. Maybe just me, a more detailed debate should be moved to it's own space I suspect.

883

Developer's Corner / Re: MS Visual Studio Update Killed T-Clock x64

« Last post by Eóin on January 25, 2009, 02:15 PM »

A possibility is that there is a memory access bug (buffer overflow would be one guess) which is in fact present in all compiled exe's/dll's but a slight rearrangement of the binary by VS 2005 Sp1 means it is only actually doing serious harm there.

884

Developer's Corner / Re: Emergence Basic Freeware

« Last post by Eóin on January 21, 2009, 11:27 AM »

Not exactly sure what you're asking, are you looking for a .NET Framework 3.5 offline installation?

885

Developer's Corner / Re: Emergence Basic Freeware

« Last post by Eóin on January 21, 2009, 08:58 AM »

And to add to the possibilities there is Microsoft's recent SmallBasic posted here by icekin not too long ago.

I actually think it looks very nice, but I'm biased because I learned to program with QBasic, then VB so I tend to have a soft spot for them.

[EDIT] Ah just saw mahesh2k mentioned SmallBasic too.

886

General Software Discussion / Re: The Monkeys Have Hit The Button

« Last post by Eóin on January 16, 2009, 07:47 AM »

I very much agree fenix.

887

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Eóin on January 11, 2009, 12:16 PM »

Yes, but I'll need to download the 32-bit version to run it in most of the VM solutions available and, AFAICT, in any of the free/cheap options.

-Darwin (January 11, 2009, 11:48 AM)

Not necessarily so, VirtualBox now supports 64bit guests if you have VT-x or AMD-V.

888

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Eóin on January 11, 2009, 11:24 AM »

Interesting, my Vista (1st drive) didn't show up either. A part me just put it down to a purposeful decision by MS to prevent 7 messing up another installation without you expressly allowing access to it. But I have no backing for that, just a hunch.

889

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Eóin on January 11, 2009, 10:04 AM »

Since I installed on a HD and it detected my 3d card fine I can post some Aero screenshots. I knocked the resolution down to 1024x768 because there was no need for massive captures I felt.

As you can see there are ribbons everywhere, but think they work really well myself. They especially adapt very intelligently to windows being resized. I can't see myself playing with it too much, Vista is running rock solid and I'm very pleased with it as my main OS. But when 7 is officially released I can see myself switching over almost instantly.

890

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Eóin on January 10, 2009, 07:33 PM »

Maybe just me but I've always liked the blue, sure beats ubuntu brown

891

General Software Discussion / Re: windows 7 beta available for free Jan 9 (!)

« Last post by Eóin on January 10, 2009, 01:22 PM »

Just installed the x64 version here. Installed fine on a 3rd HD alongside a Vista and XP install Seems quite nice I must say, like the tweaked taskbar a lot.

892

Living Room / Re: 2008 Darwin Awards

« Last post by Eóin on December 30, 2008, 10:54 AM »

According to snopes that list is based mostly on a 1994 one; 2004 Darwin Awards.

893

Living Room / Re: 2008 Darwin Awards

« Last post by Eóin on December 30, 2008, 10:45 AM »

I've always thought the Darwin Awards to be urban legends - doesn't make them any less funnier though.

-f0dder (December 30, 2008, 10:17 AM)

With the Darwin Awards though they are really supposed to be genuine.

The site has this note which has restored much of my fate in it since it is prepared to acknowledge those which turned out to be legends.

Some true stories are unconfirmed until alert fans supply references. Other stories are labelled "confirmed" but new information reveals I was fooled. And some just shouldn't have been posted.

[edit] Carol, it's under the archives way back from 1995: http://www.darwinawa...n/darwin1995-04.html

894

Living Room / Re: 2008 Darwin Awards

« Last post by Eóin on December 30, 2008, 09:14 AM »

The winner is a widly know urban legend, see snopes or even the Mythbusters pilot episode. That disappoints me quite a bit actually because I always thought the Darwin awards were more credible 

"You just couldn't make this stuff up, could you?" ...ironic I suppose.

[edit] Actually checking out the site that particular award was given in 1995 is known to be false.

895

Living Room / Re: WinXP incredibly slow (and sometimes failing) login

« Last post by Eóin on December 29, 2008, 04:20 PM »

Do you have any mapped network drives? I've seen them stall startups before if there was any connection issues.

Also if the issue is after login then it suggests a user app may be the trouble and not drivers or services. Since such apps are rarely essential you could switch them all off with AutoRuns and should that work then tediously turn them back on to find the culprit.

896

Living Room / Re: What does it mean when unplugging the computer makes it forget the bios date?

« Last post by Eóin on December 24, 2008, 02:33 PM »

Dead, or maybe just loose but I would say yes the battery is most likely the issue.

897

General Software Discussion / Re: DVD to iPod Touch in 48 hours

« Last post by Eóin on December 19, 2008, 01:11 PM »

Good luck, and enjoy the trip

898

General Software Discussion / Re: How can I dual boot between Vista and XP?

« Last post by Eóin on December 19, 2008, 12:25 PM »

You need these files on the Vista drive

[Select]

boot.ini
ntldr
ntdetect.com

Then boot.ini needs to point to the correct disk for XP. My boot.ini looks like the following

[Select]

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Pro" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

There XP is on the 2nd drive, XP x64 on the 3rd, thats 'Gaming' and 'Craftwork' respectively.

Then just use EasyBCD to add the 'NT' style boot option to the Vista bootloader.

[edit] The EasyBCD Troubleshooting Windows XP page has d/l links to the necessary files if they got lost in the process of installing Vista.

899

General Software Discussion / Re: DVD to iPod Touch in 48 hours

« Last post by Eóin on December 18, 2008, 10:23 AM »

Well StaxRip has profiles for an iPhone and iPod, one of them may work? Personally I think it's an excellent program, fully FOSS.

900

Living Room / IncrediBots - for fans of Fantastic Contraption

« Last post by Eóin on December 17, 2008, 02:24 PM »

Fantastic Contraption was a hit here among some members, myself included. So I know IncrediBots will be too. Check it out!