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8751

Living Room / Jazz Recommendation Thread

« Last post by mouser on September 26, 2013, 12:51 AM »

I'm not a huge jazz person but over the years I've run into some stuff that I really love.. I'm hoping to get more recommendations from those who are real jazz aficionados.

Anyone is welcome to post about their own tastes, but I'd also love to have some recommendations for music in the same vein as my favorites below:

John Coltrane - Blue Train album (my favorite of all)
Chet Baker - I fall in love too easily (incredible)
Count Basie - Kansas City Six album (love it)
Kenny Dorham - Quiet Kenny album (love it)

ps.
I've linked to the youtube pages just because that's the easiest way to listen -- i don't care about the videos.

8752

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by mouser on September 25, 2013, 11:20 PM »

So..

What other gadgets, hardware, software do people set up once they have a working htpc in their living room?

Standard stuff is:

• Play music
• Play videos
• Watch/listen to live streams (so an internet radio tool/plugin, tv watching tool/plugin)

Installing skype with a webcam seems neat.
Some nice full screen weather tools seem like a good idea.
Nice looking screensaver (aquarium).

What else?

8753

Screenshot Captor / Re: Taking a screenshot of Steam client

« Last post by mouser on September 25, 2013, 04:35 AM »

hmm..

so which part is the %nicename% and is there some pattern to it on different runs?

i mean i suppose i can envision an options tab where you can specify some regex search and replace rules to run on generated filenames, but thats a bit extreme..

8754

Developer's Corner / Re: SHMUP, A Löve2D story

« Last post by mouser on September 24, 2013, 07:33 PM »

Watching your latest video gave me a strange idea, i'm not sure if it's been done before or how practical it is...

What if you could find a way to interpret a music sound file as the enemy ship level..

So think of it this way -- think about processing the music file with a visual waveform, and then using the waveform to somehow control the movement and behaviors of enemies..

It would be fun to think about being able to load up any song -- and "play" that level.

8755

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by mouser on September 23, 2013, 09:59 PM »

Done.

8756

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by mouser on September 23, 2013, 08:54 PM »

Resolution:


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1977895
http://movies.netfli...39495?trkid=13462100

Saw it on netflix today.  Terrific, original, unusual, low-budget non-scary "horror" buddy movie.  But filmed extremely competently and with great dialog and chemistry between lead actors.

Highly recommended for those who like scifi/horror movies that make them think.

8757

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by mouser on September 23, 2013, 03:35 AM »

Light Alloy looks neat.

When my 8+ year old 31" tube tv finally dies it will be nice to upgrade to a large pc-friendly flat screen..

Another hardware update: I swapped out a very hot-running 2009 low-profile video card for a new cool-running video card, and the difference in heat and noise has been very noticeable (and even marginally better video performance scores).  I'm much happier with the background noise of the machine at this point.

8758

Developer's Corner / Re: SHMUP, A Löve2D project

« Last post by mouser on September 22, 2013, 09:41 PM »

Nice work p3lb0x -- it's great to be able to read about and see member project progress reports 

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General Software Discussion / Re: jv16 Powertools 2014- Endorse Study Results Before They're Published?!

« Last post by mouser on September 22, 2013, 08:34 PM »

how strange.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor Quick-Capture Bar disappeared

« Last post by mouser on September 22, 2013, 08:27 PM »

Ah so you think the problem is that while connected to a pc with multiple monitors the quick bar was visible on a monitor, and then on the newly connected pc that monitor doesn't exist so the quick bar is off screen?

First thing to try, from the Screenshot Captor tray menu, click the Quick Capture Bar item at top of menu to turn it off, and then again to turn it back on.

If this still fails, exit SC and edit the Screenshot Captor.ini file (under documents\donationcoder\screenshotcaptor if on win vista and above), and delete the section starting with "[QuickCaptureForm.rsPropSaver]" and then restart.

I'll try to add some code to fix this problem in general.

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DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for Aug 28, 2013 - Codename: Safety and Security

« Last post by mouser on September 22, 2013, 12:11 AM »

Click the link above to subscribe, or here: https://www.donation...om/plist?p=subscribe.

Basically *everyone* was removed from the mailing list and asked to click on the new subscribe link to continue receiving the newsletters.

8762

Find And Run Robot / Re: Exporting FARR result list using snagit TXT mode

« Last post by mouser on September 21, 2013, 09:27 AM »

i wouldn't mind adding an export result list function..

8763

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: spring cleaning

« Last post by mouser on September 21, 2013, 07:54 AM »

yep.  let's face it, in the tech world, after a few years, it's often the case that there is simply no use for some of this stuff.

8764

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: spring cleaning

« Last post by mouser on September 21, 2013, 12:53 AM »

We really need to start giving more junk away that's just sitting on shelf.

I recently removed two of these low-profile 2009 graphics cards from an older htpc that i am upgrading:


SPARKLE SX98GT512D3L-NM GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.co...Item=N82E16814187061

I removed them because they were running so hot -- like 60 celsius at idle, and up in 80s at load.  And they weren't quiet at that speed.

So in good conscience i don't think i would recommend these, despite newegg ratings, but if you have a use for them and you are in US i will send them and pay the postage.  But please only if you are going to use them.  Like maybe your current card is worse and also runs hot. And these are only really useful if you need a low-profile card, otherwise get yourself a full height card.

I need to make another pass through my boxes and post more things in this thread while there's still a slim chance someone might want something.

Others feel free to offer your junk.

8765

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by mouser on September 20, 2013, 11:25 PM »

There is an interesting evolution of emotions that one feels when you use something like XBMC with a zillion plugins to access different online media -- one can actually have the same evolution of emotions when using some radio-apps for mobile phones.

Stage 1 is you install some addons that have thousands and thousands of different radio stations (or tv shows or streams), and you feel an overwhelming sense of excitement and wonder at all your choices.

Stage 2 is you start looking for something that interests you and you realize how incredibly hard it is to find what you want amongst so much chaff, and it begins to dawn on you that maybe rather than 100,000 stations it would be nice to have a top 1000 that would help you find some good stuff.  And yet you still have hope that you are going to find some good stuff.

Stage 3 is the frustration that makes you want to smash something into your tv that comes when you realize that no one is making any effort to cull out the non-working links and streams, and that almost everything you try to watch/listen to either fails after timing out, or hangs the software completely.

That's the point when you would give your right arm for an app with 10 working links to some mediocre media streams.

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Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by mouser on September 20, 2013, 11:06 PM »

Going back to the issue of XBMC being a horrible mess (and yet the best out there), I'd like to make a recommendation/propsal for the next group that wants to make something better.

The most important lesson I think that needs to be absorbed is that there are two very different things that this kind of software is trying to do.  And the reason they are failing so miserably is that they are trying to do both things in the same manner.

The First Task -- Browse and Play

The first task is presenting an elegant fancy large-font tv-style user interface to allow the user to browse and select media to play.

This is what we normally think of when we think of an htpc machine -- something you can see from 10 feet away and that makes browsing and watching stuff fun.

I want to browse my music collection by hieararchical folders and do quick searchers, and when i start playing an album, I want it to download some nice artwork and info about the artist and show it elegantly.

XBMC can be made to do this, in a reasonably ok manner with some effort -- though search and navigation (and bookmarking for later watching) and returning to where you were is abysmal.

The Second Task -- Back End Administration

The second task that these tools need to be able to do represents a majority of the work -- all sorts of utilities for scanning libraries, configuring options, configuring the user interface, etc.

This is where software like XBMC gets it horribly, horribly, criminally wrong.

There is no need to "skin" and have a million ways for 3rd party themes to deal with this backend administration area -- and the attempt to do so is cataclysmic for maintenance.  And the backend administration of stuff is just terrible and confusing and inflexible.

The right way to write programs like this is to treat this as two separate tasks.  A small focused minimal elegant front end for browsing/disovering and playing, with support for skins/themes, and good support for managing bookmarks and favorites, with a very very strong focus on making this a consumer-level experience.  I should be able to give the remote to my mother and she should not be able to get lost or trapped or cause havok or want to kill herself.

The backend administrative stuff, the configuration screens, options, etc.  Can all be done with a standard user interface.  Should have nothing to do with skins or themes, should be able to be done remotely, does not need to have a theatre-style joypad/touchscreen interface, etc.

Such a division of functionality would go a long long long way to making this software easier to use, more powerful and flexible, and easier to maintain.

8767

Living Room / Re: Do you like short films? Of course you do! Shortoftheweek.com

« Last post by mouser on September 20, 2013, 10:41 PM »

Really nice. 

8768

Living Room / Re: Gadget WEEKENDS

« Last post by mouser on September 20, 2013, 10:23 PM »

Time for another coffee gadget..

Back on this post in the gadget thread, superboyac mentioned the AeroPress, though he never posted a link to information about it.

It's basically a $30 manual one-cup-at-a-time french press thingy:

http://aerobie.com/p...oducts/aeropress.htm

I've been using it for a while now and I like it -- it's sort of fun, and it cleans up fairly well, and its good for if you only have an occasional cup of coffee.


Now the next logical step after getting one of those fellas is to grind your own beans (the home-roasters can talk about that process -- i won't be going there).

As for grinding -- the serious coffee folks will tell you that the more expensive "burr" grinders do a better job of grinding than the cheaper blade grinders.  Personally, i'm not sure i really buy it.  The burr grinders certainly produce more consistent sized grinds and may not leave you with some of the fine particles that the blade grinders will, but i'm not convinced that would be such a big deal.

However, as someone who has a great appreciation for small gadgets that don't take up much room -- the idea of a big burr grinder (and they are all relatively big) is aesthetically offensive.

Which brings us to these little hand (burr) grinders, which take some effort but can pretty quickly grind enough beans for a single cup of coffee.

Here's the one I picked up:

http://www.amazon.co...rinder/dp/B001804CLY

Like I said I don't care much about burr vs blade, but what I like is that the coffee gets ground right before use and doesn't sit around for weeks, and it takes up almost no space, and cleans up super easy.  Just dumps the ground from the grinder into the Aeropress (or whatever) and you are done.

If you don't mind doing a little work before each cup of coffee, this is a fairly nice combo with minimal counter space requirements and minimal cleanup.

8769

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by mouser on September 20, 2013, 10:00 PM »

Sounds right to me wraith.

I guess we should really acknowledge that there are at least 3 different approaches one could take:

1. A minimalist, small closed set top box; these can be picked up for less than $100, do not have optical drives, are preloaded with software, are silent and low energy, and are intended to have just enough power to run their software; they are meant to be as close to consumer devices as possible -- that it, you aren't expected to spend 2 weeks hacking and installing your own custom tools.  They usually have minimal memory and small hard drives, etc -- so you would plug in an external drive or connect to a network for large media storage.

2. A custom built small silent quiet htpc box -- like the beauty that dc member Dirhael posted about earlier in this thread.  The goal there is to build a machine with the power you need to do what you plan to do with it.  it can have an optical drive, large hard drive, etc.  Whatever you need.  But the goal is to built it as small and low power as you can live with to achieve a desired form faction, quietness, and low energy and cost.  With such a custom system you would install the OS and software of your choice and maintain it -- whether that's windows, linux, android, etc.

3. A big full-power desktop class machine (fit into a small box).  The goal here is maximum flexibility and power, in exchange for a higher cost, higher energy consumption and heat, more noise, bigger form factor case (perhaps cheaper components if you go with a standard size case).  With this kind of machine you have the ability to do anything.. the question is whether you actually have things to do that will benefit from that much power.

8770

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by mouser on September 20, 2013, 09:05 PM »

And now some more constructive general comments:

I've been thinking more about hardware choices for an htpc.

You can get a $100 brand new android-based htpc/xbmc box that uses little power, is quiet, and is all ready to plug in, to be used as an htpc end user appliance.  No operating system to install, and presumably a lot less to configure and worry about.

And on the other end of the spectrum you can do what i did, which is to use basically a full powered desktop machine (possibly in a thinner media-friendly case as i have).

I've been going back and forth in my mind about what makes the most sense, and i don't yet have a firm view on what makes most sense.

In many ways, the full desktop-class computer approach to an htpc seems way overkill.  My htpc never gets above a couple percentage of cpu use -- it's basically just sitting their idle and running up my electric bill much of the time.  It's also much louder than a small dedicated htpc device would be.

But there are some advantages i've noticed:

• Very fast and easy cd ripping (and playing); i'm in the process of ripping all of my cds.  Of course you could do this on your desktop machine and transfer the files since it's probably just a one time deal.
• The desktop pc can be used as a replacement for your dvd/blueray player.  Most small dedicated htpc's don't have a dvd/bluray player (though see dc member Dirhael's post early on this thread for a great looking build that does).
• It's convenient to be able to run standard software that i am familiar with -- whether it be backup tools, exact audio cd extraction tools, etc.).  Though I can't say i have any crucial software that i couldn't live without.
• There is some real comfort in not having to worry about performance issues and being able to run multiple processes.  Though I cannot say if people ever have problems with underpowered dedicated htpc boxes.

8771

Living Room / Re: I'm ready to join the HTPC (home theater pc) revolution - what to get?

« Last post by mouser on September 20, 2013, 08:54 PM »

A few more observations after a week of tweaking -- first some more XBMC complaints..

XBMC is an amazing open source project and it's amazing that it runs so well on so many different platforms.

It's also completely fails the test of being a set top replacement for a consumer device like a tivo etc -- for all but the most devoted users.  It is simply packed to the brim with an insane navigational system and large gaping holes in functionality.  It is absolutely and inexplicably painful to navigate around some of these side and context menus and perform certain operations, and it's absolutely braindead about lots of things.  It may be ok for movie and tv browser but it's fairly terrible for online streaming and audio music.

If someone unfamiliar with XBMC came over to your house and you gave them the remote, the chance of them getting stuck in some sidebar context menu, triggering unwanted commands, and becoming frustrated is a near certainty.

Having said all that, i haven't seen anything better.  But using something like this really makes you appreciate the work that goes into polishing a consumer GUI (like the TIVO) to make it intuitive and comfortable.  XBMC gives you 10,000 alternate unsupported abaondoned broken "skins" and it's impossible to navigate.  TIVO does not let you choose the skin but everything else works intuitively.  What would you rather have?

Despite all my complaining, I still haven't found anything better for use as an htpc set top box (mainly for music) and XBMC does have a very high factor of cool if you want to hack around on it, which I have spent the last week doing.  God knows how much will break over time -- it feels fragile.  But there are some fun things to be done, and lots to explore and customize if you are into that kind of thing.

Jriver Media Center is still on my list of tools i'm playing with -- it has much nicer out-of-the-box music support, and much more power-user friendly interface in standard desktop application view.  However, it falls down miserably on the htpc television screen (theatre) view, so that's what's stopping me there.

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N.A.N.Y. 2014 / NANY 2014 Pledge: xbmcsender

« Last post by mouser on September 19, 2013, 10:33 PM »

NANY 2014 Project name: xbmcsender

What is it?

This NANY release consists of a small (open source) python class and commandline utility for sending links to your xbmc for playback.

This script will send urls (audio, video, youtube, images) to your xbmc htpc machine for playback, but it can also be used to send local files, which is does by first ftping the file and then instructing your xbmc to play it from the newly uploaded location.

This script itself is cross-platform; it also comes with a windows-only Find and Run Robot alias addon.

What's the point?

The idea of this tool is to let you quickly send a file or url from your main pc to your xbmc htpc box.

There are actually quite a few addons for different browsers that will help you do this -- i wanted a more neutral non-browser-specific solution that could send not just any url, but also upload local files.  The point is to have a very quick way to take something on your local machine and play it on your xbmc with the fewest hassle.  And perhaps more functionality will be added by me and others?

DOWNLOAD HERE:
https://www.donation.../xbmc/xbmcsender.zip

8773

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / Re: N.A.N.Y. 2014 - New Apps for the New Year - Welcome Thread

« Last post by mouser on September 19, 2013, 12:47 PM »

Welcome to the site Bhathiya!

There's not really any formal process for joining the NANY event.. Just stay tuned to this section and you'll see us start posting some updates soon.

Usually what people do is start a new thread in this section and announce the name or purpose of the program they will be releasing.  Some post early versions for people to try.

It will all make sense as we get a little closer to the new year.

8774

Screenshot Captor / Re: LATEST VERSION INFO THREAD - ScreenshotCaptor - v4.7.2 - Sep 13, 2013

« Last post by mouser on September 18, 2013, 03:32 AM »

Hi Dimitri, and greetings to Belgium!

You're not getting old, it's just that the new "Quick Capture Bar" is a new thing and I think I forgot to include a way to start the timer from it.

I will be adding it to the next release.

Until then, you engage the auto timer from the system tray menu, Right-click -> Capture Options -> Engage Auto-timer.

Let me know if that works for you and if you have any other issues with it, and thanks for your patience.

8775

Developer's Corner / Re: Odd/Fun Ways You've Learned Programming

« Last post by mouser on September 18, 2013, 12:19 AM »

When I was a little kid first learning to program, my initial motivations were to play computer "games".  I put the word "games" in quotes because these weren't the kinds of 100-person production quality games of today.  We're talking about a situation where you typed in the 2-page game program code from a computer magazine for 6 hours in order to play it (text only).

This book was my bible:

Basic Computer Games

That book and my father's encouragement is what started me coding -- for many years after that my focus was on creating games.  I spent a good part of a decade doing little else but creating clones of arcade games.  My grand opus was a clone of q-bert that had my own invented cut-scenes.. I wish I still had a copy of that..

Somewhere around 1986, in my latter years of high school, I finished work on a hybrid text-graphics adventure creation toolkit, and send out some packages in the mail with demo disks to a few computer game companies to see if i could find a company to buy/use it.  Didn't get much interest and just shelved it and went to college.