Recent Posts

8776

General Software Discussion / Re: PDF creation command line tool -- Does one exist?

« Last post by tomos on February 11, 2009, 07:26 PM »

http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/

* Merge PDF Documents     * Split PDF Pages into a New Document     * Decrypt Input as Necessary (Password Required)     * Encrypt Output as Desired     * Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data and/or Flatten Forms     * Apply a Background Watermark     * Report on PDF Metrics such as Metadata, Bookmarks, and Page Labels     * Update PDF Metadata     * Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document     * Unpack PDF Attachments     * Burst a PDF Document into Single Pages     * Uncompress and Re-Compress Page Streams     * Repair Corrupted PDF (Where Possible)

pdftk
I have it with a GUI but it is a command line tool (cant remember does it come with GUI)
recommended by various people here

8777

Living Room / Re: Going Into Frugality Mode -- What are your Tricks and Tips

« Last post by tomos on February 11, 2009, 05:04 PM »

Even strips the bones to make turkey burgers and boils them for stock!

-CleverCat (February 10, 2009, 01:28 AM)

best soup I've ever tasted is made be my mum using stock made from chicken bones

Re shaving I use one of these boyos, formerly owned by my grandfather-in-law



the blades are (relatively) cheap and are especially good if you dont shave that often (they can handle the volume!)

8778

Living Room / Re: Incredible photo from Australian wildfires

« Last post by tomos on February 11, 2009, 04:45 PM »

To add a personal note, the Australian State and Federal Governments are largely responsible for this, having significantly lessened the amount of controlled burning taking place in exchange for preferences from the green party. This kind of political pandering is costing many lives and cannot continue any longer.

-Ehtyar (February 11, 2009, 04:23 PM)

what are controlled burnings Ethyar ?
 - I have an idea what they are, but I'm dont know why they in turn should be controlled (or why some people think they should).
AFAIK in Ireland people are allowed burn land -mainly to cut back gorse bushes- not in summer naturally - but OTOH it rains there a lot ...

8779

Living Room / Re: Free Hugs Campaign Video.. Wow.. A Must See..

« Last post by tomos on February 11, 2009, 02:35 PM »

not as moving but still cool:
http://www.neatorama...ive-you-a-high-five/
 (see attachment in previous post)

-mouser (February 11, 2009, 01:13 PM)

great, nice to see the people smile

I hadnt seen the free hugs one - I was viewing a bit cynically at the beginning but it is wonderful
comments now @ almost 70,000 - Views at around 38.5 million!

8780

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: List of disc catalogers

« Last post by tomos on February 11, 2009, 07:50 AM »

I only want to mention that I sent an updated version of the disc-cataloger-list 4 months ago to tomos - he know´s the right way to update the list here. In the meanwhile I´ve updated it again.
...
 I also sent a benchmark-list to him for a release

-Crush (February 11, 2009, 07:14 AM)

could you send me the updated version Crush and I'll try get it done before you update it again

I knew this would be a problem eventually:-

• lack of time - it's actually a hugely time consuming job to make any more than minor changes to that list;
  
• lack of interest: I only started this cause I was researching one for myself - it's hard to keep the motivation going almost two years later.

Initially the idea was discussed of a wiki or posts that would be updateable by more than one person but I guess that's the limitation of having something like this in a forum ... if anyone has any creative ideas about this please speak now

8781

Living Room / Re: Crazy brits crossing railroads

« Last post by tomos on February 11, 2009, 07:39 AM »

having a large cannon at the front of the train to fire at any of the idiots obstructing the line. give the cannon a decent firing range so the train driver has a good chance of hitting these morons.

-nudone (February 11, 2009, 07:11 AM)

sounds like one for Codex Transportica

8782

Living Room / Re: [NSFW - Parody] Sony Releases New Piece Of Technology

« Last post by tomos on February 10, 2009, 03:05 PM »

OK - I'm getting old. While I agree with the sentiments expressed in the parody (of the Sony POS), I thought the amount of gratuitous swearing detracted from the humour.

-Darwin (February 10, 2009, 02:16 PM)

it would have been quite comical actually if they had "beeped" out all the cursing - call it a SFW Version
they do go close to the edge at times - mind you there's a lot heavier stuff than swearing there

8783

Living Room / Re: [swearing] Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

« Last post by tomos on February 10, 2009, 05:47 AM »

it's very funny all right

can they get away with this ?

8784

Living Room / Re: [swearing] Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

« Last post by tomos on February 10, 2009, 05:37 AM »

[swearing] Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

isn't the idea of a warning - [swearing] here - that you give people a chance to avoid whatever you're warning them about (I had to laugh about that)

8785

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007 / Re: Mark Forster seeking beta testers for Autofocus

« Last post by tomos on February 10, 2009, 05:23 AM »

It's officially out of Beta -
http://www.markforst...et/autofocus-system/

in his mail he says text from the link is copyrighted so I wont quote any here 

8786

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by tomos on February 09, 2009, 03:52 PM »

I'm pretty sure the hores-essay is a hoax (it's a bit overdone), but that doesn't make it any less funnier

-f0dder (February 09, 2009, 03:35 PM)

well I've done something similar here,
writing about what I thought was "birds" but I mistakenly used the word "Vögeln". I was embarrassed when someone else explained what I had handed up to my female teacher.
I believe I may even have said something along the lines of -
"I like vögeln" lol

8787

Living Room / Re: Greetings from the Atlantic!

« Last post by tomos on February 09, 2009, 03:45 PM »

My younger sister is sure I'm "into Antarctica" because they have Penguins.
(She's misinterpreting all the Tux/Linux memorabilia I have floating around my workstation. )

Oh Antarctica! 

-40hz (February 09, 2009, 10:21 AM)

have you seen this group of pics Scenes from Antarctica



also with penguin pics 

8788

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout

« Last post by tomos on February 09, 2009, 03:35 PM »

that sound's good, as I say - if possible - you're the boss here so it's your call !!

-tomos (January 30, 2009, 07:27 PM)

Let's assume we go with this method.  How would you like it synced?  Here are two possible methods:
1) Clear the playlist and rebuild it from the specified folders.
2) Clear only dead entries, re-scan tags of existing files, and add any new files found to the end.

-skwire (January 31, 2009, 06:35 AM)

I see "Clear Playlist" is hotkeyable
If you could possibly make "Add Folder" hotkeyable as well that would cover my current needs (if not, I can always do it with the mouse - gawd help me actually, I can always do it with Alt+F to access menu - it's just I'm only learning all about tagging and organising so I'm in a period of major upheaval so-to-speak and have to reload the current folder often)

just BTW:-
I've finally properly tagged my (very) small collection -
Also, I changed <missing> to <++++> and find it much easier on the eyes - also makes it much easier to see what hasn't been tagged - I cant see any reason not to do this - if you can please let me know!
Thanks

8789

Living Room / Re: Crash course in MUSIC: mp3/meta_Data/compilations/download_sites

« Last post by tomos on February 09, 2009, 03:17 PM »

I expected to be able to copy/transfer/move from a website with classical music to the mp3. From what you say I'd best forget it as being beyond my competence.

-roduke41 (February 09, 2009, 12:57 PM)

well,
if you're willing to say what the website is someone could tell you step by step -
if it's reasonably basic stuff I could help - I know very little about this stuff (music in particular) but I reckon I could figure it out.

With classical music I would imagine there are safe sites with free music out there (ANYone got any ideas on that one there?)

8790

Living Room / Re: Crash course in MUSIC: mp3/meta_Data/compilations/download_sites

« Last post by tomos on February 09, 2009, 09:02 AM »

I use the following scheme:
 <Artist>\(<Year>) <Album>\<Disc Number>.<Track Number>. Track Title

Some renamers should be able to rename and even organize the files in directory trees (the one I use, ReNamer, surely does), but there's the problem of format support, and that you need another program to edit the tags, which most of the time also has the ability to rename the files according to the tags and the scheme you prefer. For options, refer to this thread

-Lashiec (February 09, 2009, 07:28 AM)

thanks Lashiec,
I've properly tagged what files I have (well reasonably..) using mp3tag as recommended by that thread.
I'm not going to bother renaming the mixed bag of tracks that I have - so long as they're properly tagged I'll survive. (But I will give that thread a closer look and I can always rename them again)

But for any new ripped tracks I'll try and set some nmaing standard along those lines
cheers, Tom

8791

Living Room / Re: What are you getting for your Special Other for Valentines Day?

« Last post by tomos on February 09, 2009, 03:14 AM »

A new case... she's attracting a lot of dirt running caseless.

-scancode (February 08, 2009, 10:20 PM)

LOL  the poor thing!

8792

Living Room / Re: Greetings from the Atlantic!

« Last post by tomos on February 08, 2009, 11:31 AM »

The photos are stunning.

-mouser (February 08, 2009, 08:14 AM)

yes,
and there all in Peru except the icy one - lol  - so I should have said - oh to be in Peru, (or Chile or even muggy Paraguay Shades!)

8793

Living Room / Re: Crash course in MUSIC: mp3/meta_Data/compilations/download_sites

« Last post by tomos on February 08, 2009, 11:25 AM »

Gosh, Tomos, your "Going Back to Basics" as relates to NAMING MUSIC FILES & follow-on question all very interesting (and far beyond my competence), but what does it have to do with my posting?

-roduke41 (February 08, 2009, 09:50 AM)

LOL, Roduke, answer is "nothing"
I'm about as knowledgeable as you - as the original poster in this thread I was following up on my earlier questions.

you say
> I'm simply trying to move some hopefully-free classsical music from a website to the USB-connected MP3.
-
well first you'll have to save the music to your harddrive - if you have trouble doing that you could name the website and I (or someone else) could have a look.
In order to get more of a response, I reckon you will need to give more details as to what exactly you want to do, maybe what mp3 player you got (I'm presuming it's an mp3 player you mean), - did your player come with software - have you installed that or any other music related software, and anything else you might think relevant.

8794

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: toggle Appskey [DONE] but how to ignore certain apps?

« Last post by tomos on February 08, 2009, 05:26 AM »

you can try one of the code and see if the problem goes away..
...

-lanux128 (February 07, 2009, 08:43 PM)

thanks Lanux
but the problem was that the programme does not recognise the Shift+F10 in the first place

Check out the autohotkey commands:  #IfWinNotActive

-AndyM (February 07, 2009, 08:49 PM)

thanks Andy, will do!

8795

Living Room / Re: Greetings from the Atlantic!

« Last post by tomos on February 07, 2009, 07:13 PM »

ooh, I wouldnt mind a bit of Chile now (very grey here these days..)

8796

Living Room / Re: Tech News Weekly: Edition 06-09

« Last post by tomos on February 07, 2009, 07:12 PM »

thanks as ever Ethyar

interesting mix this week!
unfortunately the Onion is overloaded at the moment (you've swamped them ;-)

8797

Living Room / Re: Crash course in MUSIC: mp3/meta_Data/compilations/download_sites

« Last post by tomos on February 07, 2009, 02:59 PM »

going back to basics

how do you all tend to name music files - I mean the file itself -
I can see that this could depend on how you're going to organise them -
so far I have a bunch of single (individual) tracks but I want to start ripping albums
Albums organisation and file naming I guess could be:-
Artist / Album / # TrackName.mp3

but I can see advantages to naming files:-
Artist - Album - # TrackName.mp3
e.g.
Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 - 2-11 Ballad of a Thin Man.mp3
(which makes for a very long file name - I'd probably remove the period too)

I realise that tagging is probably more important but thought I'd ask in case and "before it's too late" ...
Had a look at this thread but got a headache lol
http://forums.whirlp...hive.cfm/919861.html  *

and then to complicate things there's Armando's thread about File Names : what should be avoided but I wouldnt lose any sleep about having spaces or hyphens in names


* [edit] from there, this sound good:

where possible, I use this E:\Artist\yyyy - Album\Artist - Album - ## - Title.mp3 bootlegs, where possible E:\Artist\yyyy-mm-dd - Venue\Artist - yyyy-mm-dd - Venue - ## - Title.mp3

-
a follow on question would be:
if I organise / correct the tags first is there a renamer (preferably free/donation-ware) that could rename using the tags info ? (Curt mentions File Renamer Turbo here Why was I recommended Screamer Radio? but that's about 20$)

8798

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: toggle Appskey [DONE] but how to ignore certain apps?

« Last post by tomos on February 07, 2009, 10:42 AM »

I'm not a typist and work a lot with mouse & Control key + various shortcuts.
I've always had trouble with the Apps Key (I'm left handed so working with right Ctrl) - if I hit it by mistake I have to go all the way to the other end of the keyboard and hit escape to get rid of the context menu. This gets annoying if you do it often ...

Lately I discovered that Shift+F10 also shows the context menu but it toggles it

So I present to you
my first AHK script 

[Select]

Appskey::+F10

which changes the apps key to Shift+F10 so it can toggle the menu on & off
My problem is Shift+F10 doesnt work in the programme where I really wanted this to work (Freehand, but I want to keep the script anyways for other programmes)
So, is there an easy way to exclude any particular programme from this script ?

8799

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout

« Last post by tomos on February 07, 2009, 09:06 AM »

Tomos, my friend, I made it hotkeyable.

-skwire (February 07, 2009, 08:58 AM)

oh wow, even better (definitely I was reading far too fast!)

8800

N.A.N.Y. 2009 / Re: NANY 2009 Release: Trout

« Last post by tomos on February 07, 2009, 04:06 AM »

v1.0.2 build 48
    + Added 'Scroll left' and 'Scroll right' as hotkeyable actions.  [Thanks, tomos]

-skwire (January 30, 2009, 06:37 AM)

this doesnt seem to be working in current or last builds (I missed build #48 so dont know did it work then)
Is it Control key + mouse scroll ?
sorry,
reading too quickly - it's the arrow keys and it works !!

I havent forgotten the reload/refresh current folder thing - will get back to you on that again (I'm honestly not sure - will have to look closer & think about it)