Author Topic: My favorite software! What's yours? (Read 234315 times)

Curt · « **Reply #250 on:** July 18, 2008, 07:55 AM »

My current hands-down favorite is the oddly named Write Monkey.
-40hz (July 17, 2008, 09:31 PM)

I tried WriteMonkey ("WM") a year or so ago, but found it to be too 'odd'. Your praise made me give it another try, but once again it failed to please me. I made myslef acquainted with the strange GUI, and I accepted the various features, I guess you must call them. And I thought, okay, I can live with that, this could work for me! Then I told it to start with Windows, and restarted my XP to see how WM would perform at startup. At start, a message box popped up and told me that 'null' was missing, and all of my text was deleted and I had to start all over with a blank page.

It seems you have to gently close this program, before shutting down the computer? I didn't, and I won't. I just told XP to close, and left WM open. And because of this (?) the text was deleted. I find such a behaviour unacceptable, given WM has 'auto-save'.

I was also sadly surprised that I was not given the option to change a single hotkey - on my machine F12 will close down the computer.

I did find find some features about WriteMonkey that I like. Nevertheless it will now leave my PC.

f0dder · « **Reply #251 on:** July 18, 2008, 08:04 AM »

Sadly, a lot of programs don't handle the WM_QUERYENDSESSION message, and thus won't save settings / open documents if the user shuts down his computer. The Bat! is one of those programs, so if you change settings you'll need to exit it before rebooting, or settings are lost. But I digress.

Mapping F12 to shutdown? Eek. On keyboards with a dedicated shutdown button, I always end up tearing said button off, after much cursing and swearing.

fenixproductions · « **Reply #252 on:** July 18, 2008, 09:45 AM »

2f0dder
You are lucky. During my studies *each* PC had a keyboard iwth power/sleep/somthin' buttons under standard Del/End/PgDn. Imagine the howling during lessons or coding tests. PC went crazy like woman's mood during "these days"

BTW My fav apps:
- Total Commander - file manager,
- MirandaIM - multi-rpotocol messeging client,
- Opera - web browser,
- TheBat! - e-mails,
- small tools from ex-Sysinternals...

lanux128 · « **Reply #253 on:** July 18, 2008, 10:58 AM »

Mapping F12 to shutdown? Eek. On keyboards with a dedicated shutdown button, I always end up tearing said button off, after much cursing and swearing.
-f0dder (July 18, 2008, 08:04 AM)

much anguish could have been avoided by going to the control panel.

fenixproductions · « **Reply #254 on:** July 18, 2008, 11:26 AM »

2lanux128
Theoritically it might work. In practise: in many cases computers switch off ATX power handling if you choose such options. I've tried this option but each time it works for keys but gives "Now it is safe to switch off computer" message for standard shutdown. The only way to have both functionalities (no msgs, no keys) is to rip off the last ones.

And for university times: because of some admin's idea to take off privileges from ANYONE (even IT students), it was impossible to do what you advice.

jgpaiva · « **Reply #255 on:** July 18, 2008, 11:34 AM »

And for university times: because of some admin's idea to take off privileges from ANYONE (even IT students), it was impossible to do what you advice.
-fenixproductions (July 18, 2008, 11:26 AM)

[offtopic

](emphasis mine)
Well.. Judging from me and my colleagues (I'm in Computer Science), I think those are exactly the ones that pose more danger to the computers

[/offtopic]

lanux128 · « **Reply #256 on:** July 18, 2008, 11:45 AM »

Theoritically it might work. In practise: in many cases computers switch off ATX power handling if you choose such options. I've tried this option but each time it works for keys but gives "Now it is safe to switch off computer" message for standard shutdown. The only way to have both functionalities (no msgs, no keys) is to rip off the last ones.
-fenixproductions (July 18, 2008, 11:26 AM)

if the message is displayed then either the power supply is not ATX-compliant or APM support has not been enabled in the BIOS. because iirc ATX was designed to enable users to shut-down from software-side instead of the pseudo-shutdown in the AT chassis where the message is displayed. on another note, public computers are on a different spectrum altogether.

40hz · « **Reply #257 on:** July 18, 2008, 05:05 PM »

My current hands-down favorite is the oddly named Write Monkey.
-40hz (July 17, 2008, 09:31 PM)

I tried WriteMonkey ("WM") a year or so ago, but found it to be too 'odd'. Your praise made me give it another try, but once again it failed to please me. I made myslef acquainted with the strange GUI, and I accepted the various features, I guess you must call them. ...

I did find find some features about WriteMonkey that I like. Nevertheless it will now leave my PC.
-Curt (July 18, 2008, 07:55 AM)

Sorry it didn't work out for you. I think the thing that has to be kept in mind about software like this is what audience (and intended use) it is attempting to address. I would hesitate to characterize WriteMonkey as a text editor per sce. It is intended to be a tool for writers who are looking for something to facilitate a practice known as "writing hot" or "writing in the zone." It's basically just for brain dumps. Go outside that audience/usage and the program is sadly lacking in many respects. Everybody in my writer's group (including the techno-weenies) loves it for getting a raw first draft out of their head and onto the page. After that it's MS Word all the way.

As far as "strange" GUIs go, WriteMonkey pretty much borrows from the venerable XYWriter - an old DOS dragon that was extremely popular (or at least widely used) by journalists, writers, and other odd types back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. In short, it doesn't have a GUI. The thing that is interesting about command-key driven apps is that they are somewhat difficult to learn - but easy to use once you do. Contrast that with many mouse/menu oriented apps that are easy to learn, but less convenient to use once you master the basics - until you start using the hot-keys!

allen · « **Reply #258 on:** July 18, 2008, 09:27 PM »

My current hands-down favorite is the oddly named Write Monkey.
-40hz (July 17, 2008, 09:31 PM)

It's beautiful. . . I haven't written anything "creative" in years, so likely have no use for it but were I to find myself writing again I think it'd be in that program.

What I wouldn't give for a Windows Mobile version of it!

zridling · « **Reply #259 on:** July 21, 2008, 11:08 PM »

I've enjoyed the Xfe file manager (Linux) lately. Looks and works a lot like 2xplorer for Windows, and even has a 3-pane option which is handy. I had no idea there's about a dozen Linux file managers that look and work a lot like the Windows versions.

Here's some more screenshots and a blog review.

MrCrispy · « **Reply #260 on:** July 22, 2008, 07:51 PM »

WriteMonkey is quirky and cool. I just spent 10min typing absolute gibberish just to hear the typewriter sounds! Its software with 'personality', I can easily imagine it being on the Mac.

I'm not a writer, but I can't imagine being more productive in it for writing a book than any modern word processor.

Armando · « **Reply #261 on:** July 22, 2008, 11:07 PM »

WriteMonkey is quirky and cool. I just spent 10min typing absolute gibberish just to hear the typewriter sounds! Its software with 'personality', I can easily imagine it being on the Mac.

I'm not a writer, but I can't imagine being more productive in it for writing a book than any modern word processor.
-MrCrispy (July 22, 2008, 07:51 PM)

Fun. I'm downloading it!

allen · « **Reply #262 on:** July 23, 2008, 07:56 PM »

Its software with 'personality', I can easily imagine it being on the Mac.
-MrCrispy (July 22, 2008, 07:51 PM)

I haven't tried it, not having a mac, but I believe Writeroom is the same idea.

iztoks · « **Reply #263 on:** July 24, 2008, 04:15 AM »

Hello all.
I'm the author of Writemonkey. Glad to hear that you like it. It is under heavy development right now and approaching version 1.0. WM is free, but you can contribute by sending me your thoughts, bug reports and feature suggestions (my mail address is on the wm web site). Thanks again and stay in touch.
iztok

mouser · « **Reply #264 on:** July 24, 2008, 06:43 AM »

Hi iztoks,

welcome to the site!

Great to have you stop by and say hello.

40hz · « **Reply #265 on:** July 24, 2008, 04:47 PM »

Its software with 'personality', I can easily imagine it being on the Mac.
-MrCrispy (July 22, 2008, 07:51 PM)

I haven't tried it, not having a mac, but I believe Writeroom is the same idea.
-allen (July 23, 2008, 07:56 PM)

I'm running Writemonkey under Windows.

40hz · « **Reply #266 on:** July 24, 2008, 04:49 PM »

Hello all.
I'm the author of Writemonkey. ...
-iztoks (July 24, 2008, 04:15 AM)

Just wanted to say thank you ever so much.

Curt · « **Reply #267 on:** November 02, 2010, 09:31 AM »

Xion Player from the same company was updated today, and a great audio player it is becomming.
-Curt (February 16, 2008, 03:54 AM)

The free r2 Xion is still being updated.

Xion Audio Player version: 1.0 build 126
Last Updated: 2nd November 2010
View Release Notes
Free portable version also available. U3 version: $10 (via PayPal)

r2 is also the maker of the fine, free & favorite Startup Delayer.

http://xion.r2.com.au/

Szero · « **Reply #268 on:** November 04, 2010, 03:19 PM »

I have quite some favorites :

- Directory Opus (not free)
- Faststone Image Viewer
- FastStone Capture (not free)

but by far my ultimate favorite is the free Proxomitron.
It's a local proxy with the power of 10.000 AdBlockPlus's and countless other great things that can make your surfing so
much more enjoyable. You should combine it with the filterpack from Sidki.

Proxomitron download + sikdi filter pack download here : http://sidki.proxfilter.net/prox.html

Fantastic help forum here : http://prxbx.com/forums/index.php

On first sight people would think this is hard to install/use, but when you read the documents it's a piece of cake.

Curt · « **Reply #269 on:** November 04, 2010, 09:25 PM »

Proxomitron download + ...
-Szero (November 04, 2010, 03:19 PM)

ATTENTION! When Proxomitron is warning: "Demo showing a couple of events that may trigger popups and other things. Not for use without Proxomitron" - they mean it!! 220 windows will pop up, if you click 'allow', without Proxomitron installed !!!

It was almost funny...

Almost.

Szero · « **Reply #270 on:** November 05, 2010, 04:15 AM »

Proxomitron download + ...
-Szero (November 04, 2010, 03:19 PM)

ATTENTION! When Proxomitron is warning: "Demo showing a couple of events that may trigger popups and other things. Not for use without Proxomitron" - they mean it!! 220 windows will pop up, if you click 'allow', without Proxomitron installed !!!

It was almost funny...

Almost.
-Curt (November 04, 2010, 09:25 PM)

220 popups ?! You mean that test page on the Proxomitron page ?
Yeah, they're not malicious at all, it's just a test page, but yeah you need to have Proxomitron running before trying this test lol

Anyway, I hope there are some fellow users here using the power of the Proxomitron.
The original author has passed away a few years ago, but his little gem is still of immense value against the majority of internet- and spam clutter on so many sites.

mwang · « **Reply #271 on:** November 05, 2010, 09:19 AM »

Yes, Proxomitron has stayed on my system as well, though that also means I can't find a replacement after all these years.

Szero · « **Reply #272 on:** November 05, 2010, 10:08 AM »

Yes, Proxomitron has stayed on my system as well, though that also means I can't find a replacement after all these years.
-mwang (November 05, 2010, 09:19 AM)

Some tools will just never see their equal.