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Post by Kuat on Oct 3, 2009 11:13:12 GMT -8
In an effort to help disperse programs that make my life easier to the ragged, malodorous masses (i.e. you all), I have decided to create yet another thread dedicated to shit I use. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of contents============================================= Things I assume you use. Will go over upon request- Hamachi
- Firefox
- VLCPlayer
- 7-Zip or WinRAR
- Winamp 2.8x
- Ventrilo
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To kick it off, Rocketdock. The skinner, more attractive sister of the bloated Objectdock. Now, I hate Macs, anything mac related, and would hate apples (the fruit, you fruit) by association if it weren't for the fact they were awesome. However, there are a few things that they got right. One is KisMac, which has some great features I'll go into in a later article. The other is their toolbar, which I always thought was a more useful alternative to the quicklaunch bar of windows. However, being that the internet is overflowing with guys who want to do shit for free, there are multiple programs that clone or improve upon mac's shtick. After trying them out, I found that rocketdock was the easiest to use, with the features I wanted with little to no bloat. So, what does it do? Figure 1: my desktop. Look how spic-and-span it is!  Figure 2: A simple mouseover to a small region on the top of the screen, and boom, my dock! For those of you who worry that errant mouse strokes to the top or clicks to nearby menu options will cause the dock to obstruct your target, you can cause time delay of how long you leave your mouse to bring the dock up. It set mine to half a second.  Figure 3: a closer look at the bar. As you can see, anything you can make a shortcut to can be placed on the bar. I put programs I frequent, plus folders I frequent there as well. Not shown are tiny programs (called docklets) that can display various information, like programs running, CPU temperature, and other crap. If you notice the black arrow above firefox and gimp, it also indicates programs currently running. It can be customized to other icons as well.  Figure 4: you can also supplant the windows taskbar completely by having windows minimize there. I don't use it myself.  Figure 5: like any shortcut, you can customize launch options, and change the icon. Here is age of mythology, with a launch argument telling it to use my hamachi address.  Figure 6: you can also customize general windows folders in various ways, like I have tastefully done here.  In summary, it's a program that adds functional space to your interface that can be customized and hidden. I use it because using the quicklaunch bar for docking programs would be more cumbersome, take up more space in one region, and not be as visually appealing. Get it here. |
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Post by Kuat on Oct 3, 2009 11:50:54 GMT -8
On to program #2! One that has a load of functionality for the most experienced user to a knuckle-dragging philistine. Process explorer, created by... Microsoft! Or, specifically, their Sysinternals branch. Sysinternals creates a lot of awesome programs for Microsoft, but they are for some baffling reason not bundled with their OSes, and are not exactly advertised. Whatever the case may be, my next few posts will be on their products. Anyway, I digress. Process explorer is vastly superior to the vanilla task manager. I'll go into a few reasons why below. Figure 1: the interface. Notice, at a quick glance, how much more information is displayed than task manager, and in a logical fashion. Remember, task manager separtes "processes" and "applications", so that if you don't know the process for ATI's card interface is CCC.exe, you wouldn't know what process to kill. Also, like taskman, it has a little status reader in the toolbar (bottom right, next to the green onion), that you can customise.  Figure 2: also, you can get something you could never get from taskman: what drivers, folders, registry key, and just in general EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PROGRAM THAT IS RUNNING. Say I want to know which registry key says where age of mythology is installed. I can just click the process, and look for the keys used. Here I do it with a program called Privoxy (which I'll go into in a later thread).  Figure 3: it's at this point in time I realize "image" is more appropriate than "figure" in these articles. Whatever. There is an an icon that looks like a reticule that tells you what program you hover over depends on what process. Very handy to ID what is running what. Note the white box that shows up around the system tray.  Figure 4: very detailed system stats.  Figure 5: sccclient is a program that spies on my computer, forced to be installed by my school so I can use their LAN. I can look at what keys and drivers it uses to do certain functions. You do the math on how this can be of use!  So, in summary, this is a program that is a lightweight and much greater alternative to taskman. Being that it is from windows, you have the choice to have this completely replace taskman on "ctrl-alt-del" under the options. Get it here, as well as some more useful information on it. |
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Post by Kuat on Oct 3, 2009 12:17:16 GMT -8
Here's another sysinternals gem, Desktops. It's a pretty straightforward program: it allows multiple desktops. Allow me to illustrate! Image 1: here's the basic desktops interface. By clicking the icon in the system tray, you can see what desktops are open, as well as a screenshot of their contents.  Image 2 and 3: here are the desktops, completely independent of one another. They do, however, share clipboards. Also, system tray programs (apart from desktops) do not carry over. Notice the lack of green onion and white P on one of the desktops. Desktop1:  Desktop 2:  Image 4: some programs are obnoxious that they load in the front and take an irritating long time. Pictured here, the GIMP (right windows) can take up all the space it wants while it loads. I'm surfin' fine on the left. Works the same with file transfers, zips, and anything else you want to go away, including spyware (i.e. you'll get popups and annoying shit on one desktop only, the other ones will remain clean)!  Figure 5: for a very basic program, it has a proportional amount of options. I prefer to use windows+# to switch desktops. It makes me feel like a desktop commander!  Again, to summarize, a LIGHTWEIGHT (as opposed to any other windows desktop option) program to virtually extend your desktop space. Get it here with some additional reading. |
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Post by Captain Galaxy on Oct 3, 2009 14:22:08 GMT -8
Dude, Rocket Dock is sweet. Thanks. Awesome wallpaper by the way. I like space things.
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Post by Inaaca on Oct 3, 2009 18:19:13 GMT -8
Heh, you introduced me to Process Explorer before. I didn't have a handy tutorial here about it though, so that's nice.
Rocket dock is pretty cool, as well. Desktops looks like it would confuse the heck out of me, though.
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Post by Kuat on Oct 4, 2009 0:30:15 GMT -8
Fourth on my list, the archiver's friend, RetroSFV. What is it? It's a program that creates a file (with the extension SFV) that makes sure that other files are valid. For example, say I wanted to send a large file, but I had to split it up into multiple parts. After I've split the file, I create an SFV that I will send along with the files. The recipient will receive the split file with the SFV, and using it will determine if the files were uploaded and sent properly. I'm sure you all have come across corrupted files, but only found out after some glitching or other annoyances. This avoids that. If you don't get it, that's fine, I have some pictures to illustrate. Image 1: The interface. One tab to create an archive, one to validate it. Pretty straightforward.  Image 2: say I want to burn/send/transfer the anime series "Rahxephon". First, I select the files, and then create an archive from them.  Image 3: After I have transferred the files, I double click the SFV to check if they are undamaged.  Image 4: another functionality is to create an archive of files that you have burned. Here is my burned anime collection, with the samurai champloo SFV selected  Image 5: checking the archive will obviously give me an invalidation. What I get though is how many files there were, as well as the names. So all I need to do is find the DVD I burned, and I will expect to find 26 episodes of the series on there. This is great if you burn mixed media and are unsure of what file is where.  Shortly put: it's a simple file validation tool useful for anyone who uploads/downloads/burns/transfers frequently and are worried about data corruption. Get it here. |
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Post by Kuat on Nov 6, 2009 10:25:26 GMT -8
 Here's one that I think everyone can use without exception, as we all like to listen to MP3's. Anyway, in the course of acquiring various songs from various places of various genres, I wound up with songs that would vastly differ in volume. It was not uncommon for me to fiddle with my MP3 player to adjust the volume for every fifth song. I thought that there had to be a way, a program that would normalize volume across all tracks, that did not involve me editing each song individually, or getting some band-aid solution that made music sound like crap. Thanks to the internet and its army of programmers who love to work for free, I found MP3gain. And it has changed my musical experience to something much, much more enjoyable. So, let's begin: Image 1: The main interface. Simple enough. You can add songs individually, or by folder. Hell, if you select the root folder, you can get all your music in one sweep (i.e. all your music is in "music" under different folders like music/jazz and music/rock, selecting "music" will include both folders, and compare their tracks together).  Image 2: so, here I am doing track analysis (I'll go into the different types later, but for sake of simplicity, just use this one for now). As you can see, there is a huge variation, from 75 dB to 98dB, just in this sample. To give you an example, it's around the same difference as normal conversation when compared to a lawn mower (~65 db to 90 db). So if you turned the volume up for the 75 dB, you'd be blasted by the 98 one. Obviously, this sucks.  Image 3: In both these images, you see a variable called "clipping". This basically states if there is distortion caused by the volume. Most of these tracks inherently have it, and when adjusted downward, will actually lose that. However, some of the tracks that you gain upwards will acquire this. A bit of a trade off, but to be honest I can't tell one way or the other.  Image 4: So, after analysis, I check to make sure things aren't too wanky with clipping, and I go ahead and apply track gain. As you can see on the menu, you can undo (at any time, even a year later) changes made by MP3 gain.. In other words, you don't need to worry about harming your original sound files in case you don't like their new sound.  Image 5: Ok, here is a simple image of track vs album gain. Albums have patterns of purposeful sound; in other words, you don't want a quiet song in an album to be the same volume as a loud one, because the artist didn't intend that. Personally, I don't care, but it's an option you have.  Overall, this program allows you to normalize volume easily without any to very little sound quality loss. I can't recommend it any higher. Get it here. |
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Post by Inaaca on Nov 6, 2009 11:18:45 GMT -8
Pretty awesome. I've certainly encountered this issue before.
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Post by Muramasa on Nov 7, 2009 0:48:50 GMT -8
Yeah, I used it, and it helped normalized the volume of the music I was listening too. Freaking Gurren Laggan soundtrack was really quiet for some reason.
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Post by The Dankness on Nov 7, 2009 18:15:04 GMT -8
This image is the closest my mind can come to comprehending this thread:  Literally, that's all my brain even shows me when I look at this thread. |
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Post by Kuat on Nov 9, 2009 12:34:09 GMT -8
Literally, that's all my brain even shows me when I look at this thread. Funny, when I look at you all I see is this:  |
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Post by The Dankness on Nov 9, 2009 14:24:42 GMT -8
I am are not computar man.  |
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Post by Kuat on Nov 9, 2009 14:30:21 GMT -8
Actually, scratch the cave man. I think of THIS when I think of you:  |
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Post by The Dankness on Nov 9, 2009 14:42:35 GMT -8
Dear lord, I'm laughing WAY too hard at that right now.
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Post by Captain Galaxy on Nov 9, 2009 18:26:39 GMT -8
That's hilarious.
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Post by You probably can't touch this. on Nov 9, 2009 19:49:06 GMT -8
As a macfag, I feel it is my duty to laud on about how I already have Rocketdock and Desktops. Your envious knock-offs feed my ego.
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Post by Kuat on Nov 9, 2009 21:12:38 GMT -8
As a macfag, I feel it is my duty to laud on about how I already have Rocketdock and Desktops. Your envious knock-offs feed my ego. That's cool. |
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Post by You probably can't touch this. on Nov 9, 2009 22:46:32 GMT -8
I was hoping for a more acerbic reply from you along the lines of the "I imagined this while reading" above. You're intentionally robbing me of that thrill, aren't you.
Cruel.
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Post by Kuat on Nov 10, 2009 0:53:43 GMT -8
I was hoping for a more acerbic reply from you along the lines of the "I imagined this while reading" above. You're intentionally robbing me of that thrill, aren't you. Cruel. Whatever do you mean? I value and respect your opinion, and your post truly added to the discussion at hand. I would never dream of mocking you in any way, and implying that I would has left me wondering why. Unfortunately, this is recurrent behavior, and I will have to file an official grievance.  |
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Post by You probably can't touch this. on Nov 10, 2009 2:20:35 GMT -8
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