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8801

General Software Discussion / Re: Slash your windows boot time

« Last post by 40hz on November 15, 2010, 12:29 PM »

Services especially, i had a svchost that was running about 80% cpu between boot and actual computer use.

-jamiemac2005 (November 15, 2010, 10:59 AM)

Indexing service?

-f0dder (November 15, 2010, 11:23 AM)

Or some Java-based app checking and doing updates after creating a restore point?

8802

General Software Discussion / Re: Slash your windows boot time

« Last post by 40hz on November 15, 2010, 11:09 AM »

It doesn't cover everything. If you wanted something to do that i'd suggest Autoruns (SysInternals). And then using google to work out what they do.

-jamiemac2005 (November 15, 2010, 10:59 AM)

You need to keep in mind the intended audience for something like this.

If you're knowledgeable enough to use SysInternals Autoruns  effectively, you're not the sort of user who needs (or will be likely to want to use) something like Soluto.  

8803

General Software Discussion / Re: Download managers: Get your fingers out of my browser!!

« Last post by 40hz on November 14, 2010, 02:23 PM »

I used it to download all the online HTML help files (on-line manual) of a program I use so I could have a copy to refer to when I am off-line. It was much easier than page by page saves.  Had all 102 files in about 60 seconds.

-bob99 (November 13, 2010, 09:20 AM)

You might want to check out ScrapBook - while it doesn't handle "grab all links on a page", it's very useful for quickly for (fully) saving a single page for offline viewing. It's a tool I'm pretty happy to have in my repository

-f0dder (November 14, 2010, 12:27 PM)

@fodder: nice find. I hadn't heard about ScrapBook.  

Another alternative for grabbing single web pages is a utility called Canaware NetNotes. It allows you to download complete pages and save them to "libraries" on your PC.

The thing I really like is that it saves the actual HTML and doesn't do anything proprietary to them or use a database.  And the "libraries" you create are just standard folders on your hard drive.  As a result, it's super light on resources - and the saved pages are viewable in anything that can read a webpage as opposed to just NetNotes itself. There's a plugin that puts it in the context menu so it's accessible via a right click from within your browser. Great tool. I use it to compile and tag collections of tech data and how-to articles for my personal knowledgebase.
 




Get it here

8804

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on November 13, 2010, 04:56 PM »

8805

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on November 13, 2010, 02:50 PM »

@Mouser: well...that ringing 'endorsement' is enough to make me decide to cut my losses and stop reading Wolfram. I've got enough far more interesting books I want to get caught up on that there's no point in my wasting the effort to chug through those last 800 pages.

Thx for the input.  

(And all this time I thought maybe it was just...me!)

---

P.S. If anybody wants this book, drop me a PM and I'll mail it to you if your address is in the USA.

8806

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: TwistedBrush 30% off

« Last post by 40hz on November 13, 2010, 02:22 PM »

Oooo Curt!  

Thanks for the heads-up on this. I keep meaning to buy a copy of TB. But the $100 price tag puts it on the low end of my priority list for something I only have occasional use for. This discount is enough to provide the extra motivation to stop thinking about it.

TB is an amazing art app. I used it to create the "fur" in this draft illustration for a project band CD I'm working on:



Very cool piece of software. Something about it just begs you to experiment and explore.

8807

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« Last post by 40hz on November 13, 2010, 01:21 PM »

One book I'm currently plowing through is Stephen Wolfram's  massive (1192 pages and 5.5 lbs!) tome: A New Kind of Science.



I've heard so much about this guy that I couldn't wait to see what he had to say about his own work - as opposed to what others have said about it.

Occasionally interesting, often repetitious, and chock full of the author's inflated notions of self-importance. Much like the Wolfram|Alpha engine itself, there's a good chance there's far less here than meets the eye.

I also have an occasional problem with his making personal claims to "discoveries" and insights that have obviously been made by others long before him. Either this guy has an ego the size of a truck, or he is painfully oblivious to all the mathematical research going on around him.

Since I'm reading it a few pages at a time (with just before bedtime tea) I've only made it about a third of the way through so far. I'll probably finish it since I keep thinking there's something I'm missing, with hopes it doesn't turn out to be mostly smoke and snake oil.

On a positive note, it is well written and nicely illustrated.  

---------

Note: I got my copy at our local library book sale for four bucks. If I had plunked down the $45 cover price I'd be pretty pissed with myself right now.
 

8808

General Software Discussion / Re: Download managers: Get your fingers out of my browser!!

« Last post by 40hz on November 13, 2010, 12:46 PM »

Here's a situation not easily resolved:
I want to install 3 different download managers.  But I need to be able to completely (COMPLETELY) disable the other two before using the third.  Is that even possible?  Not from what I've seen.  You'd have to uninstall to really do that.  Comments?

-superboyac (November 13, 2010, 11:47 AM)

+1 with sanjman99. Don't know about disabling a DLM completely. But I too have a couple of different managers on my system (DTA + FDM) that seem to coexist without problems.

But if you're using Firefox, the FlashGot  add-on will let you pick/switch back and forth with whichever download managers you have installed on your system.

This is what I use FWIW.

8809

General Software Discussion / Re: Download managers: Get your fingers out of my browser!!

« Last post by 40hz on November 12, 2010, 06:17 PM »

I've tried FDM several times, and I still don't know how to set it up to ONLY download when I do the cnrl-click.  But you don't have to bother explaining it, I'm not using it currently.  

-superboyac (November 12, 2010, 04:13 PM)

Too late! I already have a screenshot in my archives!

It's in the Monitoring panel under <Options> <Settings>. Also note that nifty Don't monitor for files smaller than... feature.  Very useful. Very cool.



And it's ALT-click rather than CTRL-click. I keep forgetting I've remapped my keyboard a little bit.

8810

General Software Discussion / Re: Download managers: Get your fingers out of my browser!!

« Last post by 40hz on November 12, 2010, 03:41 PM »

I feel your pain. I get pretty snarked when anything on my machine springs into action because IT decided it was needed.

I use Free Download Manager. I set it to only come up if I do a control-click on a download link. The rest of the time, the downloads are handled by the browser.  

8811

General Software Discussion / Re: Slash your windows boot time

« Last post by 40hz on November 12, 2010, 08:07 AM »

Looks great in theory until you realise you shouldn't even have to worry about it, because the OS should already do it for you.

-justice (November 02, 2010, 08:44 AM)

Good point. But I think they're gearing up to selling it to PC manufacturers as a utility that will be included with new machines. It could cut down on support call times since it seems to be able to diagnose and correct all the common "dumb" boot problems the average user might experience. And it also does so in a very safe manner so it's easy to recover if it actually does screw something up. Which is a lot more than can be said for most of those registry "cleaner" apps out there.

I wouldn't call it a Tech's tool. But for what it is, it's pretty nice.  

8812

General Software Discussion / Re: Slash your windows boot time

« Last post by 40hz on November 12, 2010, 07:57 AM »

Downloaded and gave it a try yesterday on one of my macines and a client machine (with their permission ) to see what it could do.

I follow a pretty draconian approach to booting services and apps so I had my box tuned up already. Reported boot time was 1:31. It had three "possibles" which I ignored because they were doing what I wanted them to. But I already knew that.

On the client machine boot time was 3:38. I agreed with all the recommended tweaks and about 75% of the possible tweaks right off the top. This app does seem to think much like I do about this stuff. Just implementing the recommended changes shaved a little over a full minute off the boot.  Pretty slick. 

Like fodder, I'm curious about the crowdsourced aspects of its data gathering model. And +1 with his observation that a lot of people who are quick to share their knowledge about technical  issues are frequently guilty of providing erroneous information. Guess time will tell how well it works out.

Also curious about the "frustration" button. I didn't have anything to test that out on so it will have to wait until either something crops up, or I deliberately cause a problem just to see what it does. Did anybody get a chance to check it out?

Anyway, it seems benign (and potentially useful) so I'm gonna leave it on my box for a while just to see if it misbehaves.

Kudos on the eye candy too. It does have a very pretty interface. One of the nicer looking apps I've seen.

8813

Living Room / Re: Too Stupid to Own a Computer

« Last post by 40hz on November 11, 2010, 09:24 PM »

just a little petrochemical humor

-sajman99 (November 11, 2010, 06:56 PM)

What a gas!

-cranioscopical (November 11, 2010, 08:26 PM)

No fuel like an old fuel! 

8814

General Software Discussion / Re: 25 Ubuntu tips for beginners

« Last post by 40hz on November 10, 2010, 03:22 PM »

www.howtoforge.com has a series of distro specific articles on setting up the "Perfect Desktop" and "Perfect Server."

The "perfect" part may be up for debate, but the articles are great for slightly advanced beginners who have enough smarts to follow a step-by-step.

Here's the links for Ubuntu 10.10 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS desktops. Browse around for other distros, versions, or server setups.

Also take a look around the rest of howtoforge.com while you're there. Lots of good info to be found even if the navigation scheme and overall site structure leaves a bit to be desired.

-----

@Deo: Ever consider becoming the author of DC's first member created Newbie Ubuntu Setup Guide? Just think...Cody and Tux: together at last!    

8815

Living Room / Re: Desktop Linux: The dream is dead

« Last post by 40hz on November 10, 2010, 02:43 PM »

Personally, I greatly admire the folks who have taken the bold step to open-source their software, and I think those applications are all the better for it.
Would the Gimp be a better Photoshop contender if it were closed-source?
I seriously think not.
Would I buy it if I had to pay for it?
Sure, if the price was right and the features attractive; no different than any other software.
Like Zaine said, if Adobe made a feature-for-feature Linux version of Photoshop, you can bet there would be a substantial market for it.

-Edvard (November 10, 2010, 01:14 PM)

You guys make an excellent point. Because (as has been discussed before) the choice of OS is largely immaterial to most users. What drives adoption is the availability of applications for a given OS. And where there is sufficient expertise to make the choice of OS an issue, there's many in the know that prefer running on top of Linux if possible.

So why the hesitancy to release commercial Linux applications?

I think it's a combination of inertia; a desire to avoid multi-platform technical support expenses; a misunderstanding of exactly who uses Linux - and for what; and the fear of jeopardizing cozy developer relations with the likes of Microsoft and Apple more than anything else.

But that hasn't stopped everybody. Some very high-end, very expensive graphic packages (ex: SoftImage@$3K and Maya@$3K+ per copy) have already released versions that run on Linux.

Hollywood is also onboard with Linux. And it's not just for the cost savings.

The Road to El Dorado, Antz, Chicken Run, Deep Blue Sea, Star Trek: Insurrection, Fantasia 2000, Men in Black, Hollow Man and many many more, were created with Linux software such as RAYZ, Maya or Shake. Now, don't think all the software used in movie production is free, because most of the applications cost somewhere between $8,000 and $15,000 or even more, but hey, it's Hollywood!

Another example is the very popular Shrek movie made at the DreamWorks studios, and the renderfarm used has a 1,000+ processors, 80% Linux and 20% IRIX. DreamWorks created a render tower made up of dual 1GHz P3 2GB RAM computers housed in a 1RU (1.75") package stacked 41 units high, which can replace computers consuming 40-50 feet of data center rack space. Also, DreamWorks uses both internally developed programs tailored to the needs of their animation production and commercially available animation software, and because most of their internal developed software was originally created for the SGI IRIX operating system, it's much easier to port the applications to a Linux system, which is much more similar to IRIX than Windows or Mac OS X.

http://news.softpedi...es-Linux-45571.shtml

-and-

Weta Digital

“Linux is an integral part of what we do here at Weta”, says Production Engineering Lead Peter Capelluto. “It's very well suited for the dynamic needs of the visual-effects industry. Our department would have a much more difficult time accomplishing our goals with any other operating system.”

“Weta predominantly uses Linux for our workstations and also for our renderfarm and servers”, says Capelluto. “There are a few applications that require the use of Mac OS X, Windows and Irix. Whenever possible, we use Linux. The open-source nature of Linux and the many Linux applications are a major advantage. We also prefer it for stability, low cost, access control, multiuser capabilities, control and flexibility.” Capelluto's department develops pipeline software, such as the digital asset management system and the distributed resource management system for their renderfarm.

“We have 500 IBM Blade Servers, 2,560 HP BL2x220C Blade Servers and 1,000 workstations”, says Weta Digital Systems Department Lead Adam Shand. “Ubuntu is our primary render and desktop distro. We also use CentOS, RHEL and Debian.” The workstations are IBM and HP. Weta uses NetApp DataOnTap, NetApp GX, BluArc, Panasas and SGI file servers. Storage is mostly NAS, not SAN. For open-source apps, they use Apache, Perl, Python, MySQL, PostgresSQL, Bind, OpenOffice.org, CUPS, OpenLDAP, Samba, Firefox, Thunderbird, Django, Cacti, Cricket, MRTG and Sun Gridware.

“We're big fans of open-source code here at Weta”, says Capelluto. “We're utilizing Sun's Grid Engine for distributed resource management and have helped them fix a number of bugs. It's very powerful to be able to improve upon open-source software and to fix any problems you encounter.”

http://www.linuxjour...al.com/article/10301

8816

General Software Discussion / Re: Scrivener for Windows

« Last post by 40hz on November 10, 2010, 12:07 PM »

However, the "freeware" concept that I was assuming, is quite wrong: This is a test version and nothing more.

-Curt (November 10, 2010, 09:35 AM)

From what I gather, it will be "free" through November/December to coincide with the annual NaNoWriMo event.

Re: buggy

I tried the beta2 and it had several serious issues, including not wanting to save on more than one occasion. Glad to see they've made progress getting the bugs out.

Re: Storybook

Designed for a different purpose than Scribner? How so?  

8817

Living Room / Re: Desktop Linux: The dream is dead

« Last post by 40hz on November 10, 2010, 07:43 AM »

Except when you go the Mono route, you start down the slippery slope of dipping a toe into Microsoft's patent bullshit, which as we know, any corporation is more than happy to spend a decade suing the living crap out of anyone that gets near their IP. For me, it's not worth the headache, even though Miguel de Icaza has done some wonderful things for us all.

-zridling (November 10, 2010, 07:31 AM)

+1  

Mono is a neutron bomb waiting to be detonated. I think it's only a matter of time before Microsoft shows its fangs despite whatever "gentleman's agreements" and "unofficial "understandings" it has with the Mono community. Or more to the point, that the Mono community thinks it has with Microsoft.

And all that will happen very shortly after a huge part of the Nix app world has grown completely dependent on Mono and/or Linux gains enough overall desktop market share for Microsoft to see it as a creditable threat to its business.

The old Microsoft software strategy used to be: Embrace - Extend - Extinguish!

Now that so much of their capacity for innovation seems to be used up, the new paradigm will be: Tolerate - Litigate - License!

 

8818

General Software Discussion / Re: Scrivener for Windows

« Last post by 40hz on November 10, 2010, 07:29 AM »

I gave it a try a few weeks ago.

Very promising, but the version I used was extremely buggy. Got a few sample chapters in before it screwed up royally when I began moving things around and basically stopped working.


If they ever get the kinks worked out I think I'd be willing to buy a copy. It's pretty good about staying out of your way. And very intuitive. Of all the novel "organizers" out there, this one seems to have the smoothest workflow.

I'm gonna keep an eye on this one.  

Note: You can get very similar functionality (plus some extra features) with a free open source app called Storybook available here.



More screenshots (click to enlarge) for chronological, scene organizer, and book view:

       

 

8819

Living Room / Re: Violence in Video Games & the Law

« Last post by 40hz on November 09, 2010, 06:45 PM »

This is a might inconsistent, "...CHILDREN CHOOSE to be violent, either through their own choice, or because of bad parenting...."  How does bad parenting make children choose to be violent?

-CodeTRUCKER (November 09, 2010, 04:36 PM)

Comic Rita Rudner summed it up best when she said she found the whole debate between Nature versus Nurture in child development to be very comforting. Because either way (intrinsic nature or upbringing) she still got to blame her parents for everything.
 

8820

Developer's Corner / Re: Opinions about Ruby/Ruby on Rails

« Last post by 40hz on November 09, 2010, 06:39 PM »

@fodder: Wow! Good catch. These guys are on Macs now that you mention it.  

---------------------
And yeah... the performance issue. I thought it seemed a little sluggish in operation but I chalked it up to "early code" rather than an intrinsic issue with RoR. Gonna make it a point to broach that topic with them. Thx for the heads up on that point.
 

8821

Living Room / Re: Nice Keyboard, However...

« Last post by 40hz on November 08, 2010, 07:11 PM »

@ CT

I take it you know about my Uncle then?  

8822

Developer's Corner / Opinions about Ruby/Ruby on Rails

« Last post by 40hz on November 08, 2010, 07:09 PM »

Hi:

I just recently got "invited" to join in on a web project a few good friends are currently involved with. (Long story. Don't ask.  )

But in order to do so, I'd need to get fairly conversant with Ruby and Ruby on Rails. 

Now I'm not adverse to learning new things. But I'm also at the stage of my life where I'm not super gung-ho on learning yet another language unless it's one that could be so generally useful and productive that I'd be doing myself a disservice by not knowing more about it.

I've read up a bit on Ruby. The claims and the flames both seem to trend towards the extreme.

Is there anybody in the DoCo community that is either: using Ruby for something non-trivial, or has attempted to do so, that has an opinion on this language?

Many thanks. 

8823

Living Room / Re: Nice Keyboard, However...

« Last post by 40hz on November 08, 2010, 06:54 PM »

+1 w/Deozaan 

I checked with DealNews. Amazon currently has the lowest price.

BTW: dealnews.com is a good place to check for sales prices. I subscribe to their RSS feeds. I find decent deals for myself and my clients all the time over there. Good place to check for web "coupon" codes too. 

DISCLAIMER: just for the record, 40hz no affiliations, kickback, or other business arrangements with the folks at Dealnews. He's either too honest, or too dumb, to ask merchants for something like that. 

8824

General Software Discussion / Re: SMF or phpBB... that is the question?

« Last post by 40hz on November 07, 2010, 10:57 AM »

Rather than a specific FSN, you might consider setting up a more general purpose social network site and use that in conjunction with your choice of forum/discussion software. Elgg is one possibility. Last I looked they had (or at least had planned) plugin support for the previously mentioned Vanilla and phpBB. Elgg has other plugins as well.

I'm not super wild about social networks in general. But I've come to begrudgingly respect them since they seem to meet the needs of so many people on both ends of the technical spectrum.

Figure it this way: all the "young uns" grew up with sites like Facebook and Twitter. So the closer you can get your site to look and feel like what they're used to, the better chance you have of encouraging their regular participation.

And if you're looking 50+ years down the road, those are the people in your family circle that you'll want to cater to.

Just thinking out loud. 

----------

Addendum:

You also might want to consider doing hardcopy "yearbooks" from the info collected at your site to circulate and/or archive. A high quality paper copy may not last forever. But it is an inexpensive, non-volatile, hack-proof storage system that's platform independent and does not require a power source.

Good thing to have around should a cyberwar ever break out. 

 

8825

Living Room / Truely awesome 404 page!

« Last post by 40hz on November 06, 2010, 01:14 PM »

We've all seen clever 404 File Not Found pages. This one, however, is amazing.



Explore this mildly interactive flash 404-page courtesy of Daniel Karcher of bluedaniel studios

("Providing flash content for the motion picture industry.")

Link here. (Note: requires javascript and Flash.)

 

With thanks to Graphic Design Junction for this find. You can see 65 more examples of 404-page cleverness at their website.

Link here.