Freeware list

[okami111]

Dear forum members (all guest can stop reading ;) ),

after a loong time I want to update my Freeware list (for those who do not know what I'm talking about www.flexion.org/team/okami/list.html (http://www.flexion.org/team/okami/list.html) ) and I need help in some areas...

1.) Webdesign, I want to split the list in n pages, but without frames and the navigation system should also be usable offline (That was my idea of the list, see offline what program is for ;-) ).

I also need comments for:

* A nice new name (as I want to expand the list as the ultimate Multimedia reference)
* How to change the usability (what categories etc.)
* How many pages should it have (1,2,3, more?)
* for a new grading system
* and of course I need the links of all those secret and hidden, unfamous little programs :-)

If there will be enough comments the change can be expected in about 2 weeks (it will be a gigantic update).

Thanks and Bye.

Last but not least, to Doom9 if you do not want to have your nice forum abused by such lame and boring postings, then please delete this one.

Mijo.

[BlackSunSoft]

This is a very nice news.
For a grading system, what do you think about something like 5 stars for the best softwares ?

>* and of course I need the links of all those secret and hidden, unfamous little programs :-)

Can you add my software ? PowerDivX, DVD:Reaper and MorphiX ?

Btw something that is appreciated in your softwares descriptions, it is very great that you do not copy the readme's description (like for GDivX player which claim to be the lightest player)

Keep up the good work !

[gabest]

"is very great that you do not copy the readme's description"

Hehe, developers just hate when their stupid lines are being quoted ;)

[okami111]

First, thank you for your reply!

> For a grading system, what do you think about something like 5 stars for the best softwares ?

Well, please, explain this more... Do you mean I should give the baddest programs one star, average 3 stars etc.? Or replace the thumb with five stars?

> Can you add my software ? PowerDivX, DVD:Reaper and MorphiX ?

No. ;) Of course, I will add every freeware program (if the author agrees of course!)! But your programs are not unfamous, hidden etc. :) . In fact I think in the new update there will be about 30 :eek: new programs...

> Btw something that is appreciated in your softwares descriptions, it is very great that you do not copy the readme's description (like for GDivX player which claim to be the lightest player)

Er, I should be blushing now, because I mostly do copy and paste. Hehehe... No, if someone write's "my program is the best, blah,blah" then I will surely not copy and paste that!

> Keep up the good work !

Thanks, I will!

And to all german speaking members, Michael Moenning is working hard on a update of the german translation (currently in release candidate state :-) ). ( www.michael-moenning.de/ (http://www.michael-moenning.de/) )

> Hehe, developers just hate when their stupid lines are being quoted

Stupid lines, yeah right... :)

Thanks, and I still need your help (especially the splitting and navigation issue)...

Cheers,

Mijo.

[BlackSunSoft]

>Well, please, explain this more... Do you mean I should give the baddest programs one star, average 3 stars etc.? Or replace the thumb with five stars?

Something like that:
dvd.box.sk/divx/link.php3?rid=5421&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdvd.box.sk%2FindexN.php3%3Fpid%3Ddivx%26prj%3Dsoft3%26id%3D5420%26rubrika%3Dtools (http://dvd.box.sk/divx/link.php3?rid=5421&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdvd.box.sk%2FindexN.php3%3Fpid%3Ddivx%26prj%3Dsoft3%26id%3D5420%26rubrika%3Dtools)


>Er, I should be blushing now, because I mostly do copy and paste. Hehehe... No, if someone write's "my program is the best, blah,blah" then I will surely not copy and paste that!

=) A good thing to do is like DDigest, add a screenshoot, etc... But this represent a lot of work.

>> Hehe, developers just hate when their stupid lines are being quoted
>Stupid lines, yeah right...

Right, I hate that everybody use this old description of the 1.0 of PowerDivX:

PowerDivx NextGen is a AVI/Ac3 player with multispeakers decoding support. It has been tested with a Sound Blaster Live! 1024 with the Cambridge SoundWorks DTT2500 Dolby Digital 5.1 Speakers.

Stupiiiidddd !! ;)

[okami111]

> =) A good thing to do is like DDigest, add a screenshoot, etc... But this represent a lot of work

I thought about it to insert a user rating thing, but I'm against it (for instance if you use it offline,what's the use of it?), on many free and shareware site's average programs are rated very high and very good one's are rated low or not at all...

Most of the stuff on DDigest or the astal.. er, DVD.box.sk is unneccesary, IMO. I want this list to be fast loading and quick reading... It should stay to be a offline reference too...

And if I expand it to a multimedia freeware list there will be a few hundred programs more...

BTW, DDigest's first version of their download page(s) had a remarkable resemblance with my freeware list ;) . Hihi...

BTW II, 99% of the work is finding new programs (not "stealing" from other sites!) and updating the old ones...

More comments more than welcome...

Cheers,

Mijo.

[BlackSunSoft]

I am the only one interested in helping Okami ? Common guy ! We have never beat somebody (at least in my case) :evil:

>I thought about it to insert a user rating thing, but I'm against it (for instance if you use it offline,what's the use of it?), on many free and shareware site's average programs are rated very high and very good one's are rated low or not at all...

Noo, your rating

[okami111]

> I am the only one interested in helping Okami ?

It seems so :( .

> Noo, your rating

Ah, now I get it, but I will probably try to make something like, every contributor has to rate every program (if they want that, of course)...

I don't like that I have to rate it alone (why has Nandub only 5 stars? ;) ).

Thank you for your help, if you have any other idea, please write it down.

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Toff07]

Yes, it's a good news !
I love discovering unfamous little programs.

For the ranking system, maybe you can put 2 grades.
User's grade and okami's grade.

Why don't you want to use frames ?
If you use more than 1 page, user will have to download a package ??? or
it will be not so easy to read it offline.
So if you make a package you can use frames ;-)

Also what you can do is to make a chm version with just one file. (with no users grade)

Regards [Toff]

[okami111]

> For the ranking system, maybe you can put 2 grades.
User's grade and okami's grade.

Hmm, good idea... But I still need the help with implementing all the stuff as my HTML knowledge is almost zero... And Wimpy is almost always not available...

> Why don't you want to use frames ?

Because, mostly it doesn't look good, IMHO.

> If you use more than 1 page, user will have to download a package ??? or
it will be not so easy to read it offline.

I want that the offline and online version is the same! And I will especially make a zip package, because I just hate guides or long lists that cannot be *easily* used offline...

> So if you make a package you can use frames ;-)

Again, no knowledge :( ... But I will look into HTML a little bit more these days :) .

> Also what you can do is to make a chm version with just one file. (with no users grade)

Nope, I want the offline and online version be 100% the same.

Thank you very much for your input!

Cheers,

Mijo.

[DanniDin]

Hi Mijo,

Glad to See You're Alive

I Still Think it Would Be Nice if You Used One of the Menus On www.dynamicdrive.com/dyna...ndex.html. (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/index.html.)
Each Menu Line will Make the User Jump to the Desired Section On the Same Page (or to a Different Frame).

It's Your Call...

Cheers,

Danni.

[DanniDin]

www.dynamicdrive.com/dyna...index.html (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/index.html)

[BlackSunSoft]

I have another ideas: err, I just forgot them

[Toff07]

Also if you want to put a user's rank you will have to do some scripting (php, jsp, asp or cgi).
And it will be quite hard to have the offline version up to date.

What I like with frames, is that it allows to have a fixed part of the page, so it's very easy to navigate.
It's true that it also limit the design.

Regards [Toff]

[BlackSunSoft]

Use a white background please !!

[Emp3r0r]

There is always a better alternative to frames, just create some decent navigation... do yall need help?

[okami111]

> Also if you want to put a user's rank you will have to do some scripting (php, jsp, asp or cgi).
And it will be quite hard to have the offline version up to date.

Yes, I know... But that's not so important right now. It's more important to find a navigation system and to make new categories when I begin to make a freeware multimedia list.

> white background

Try the mpegx mirror upload :-) .

> do yall need help?

Sure.

Today I played with giving every category a html page, I used the slidemenu navigation from www.dynamicdrive.com/dyna...inmenu.htm (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/slideinmenu.htm) . But, sadly, this one dissapears if you scroll down :-( . Danni proposed www.dynamicdrive.com/dyna...idmenu.htm (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/davidmenu.htm) I'll look tommorow into that...

Emp3r0r, please post your thoughts here or mail me directly okami at flexion dot org ;-) .

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Emp3r0r]

Ok, make sure you stick to basics and please don't use frames, this is my second time typing this because of frames. I recommend you have a column down the left with the main categories and then have a location bar at top, for example:

Multimedia Software > Sound Tools > AC3

This is ample navigation for just a multimedia software site. Make sure to K-I-S-S and don't let it get a cluttered look like divx-digest has. Remember your main objective of the site, allow downloads.

Ok, also, there should be room for a link to "The Guide" if the appropriate software has one.

Oh, and it should be sortable by shareware / freeware / opensource.

Needs to be searchable too.

Maybe some javascript could make this all possible offline but havn't looked into that.

[okami111]

> Ok, make sure you stick to basics and please don't use frames, this is my second time typing this because of frames. I recommend you have a column down the left with the main categories and then have a location bar at top, for example:
Multimedia Software > Sound Tools > AC3

Thanks, I'll have to completely change my catefories. But I will release at least one update with the old ones.

> This is ample navigation for just a multimedia software site. Make sure to K-I-S-S and don't let it get a cluttered look like divx-digest has. Remember your main objective of the site, allow downloads.

I will definitely use the script that was mentioned in my last post, as in my tests I found it quite nice...

>Ok, also, there should be room for a link to "The Guide" if the appropriate software has one.

Eyeyey... I think you mixed some things up! My freeware list was ONLY intended to be a REFERENCE! Never a download page or complete ripping guide site!

> Oh, and it should be sortable by shareware / freeware / opensource.

Er, shareware in a freeware list?! :) Opensource, maybe... Maybe a nice GPL icon somewhere :-) . Good idea.

> Needs to be searchable too.

Hmm... As I said... No knowledge.

> Maybe some javascript could make this all possible offline but havn't looked into that.

Well the navigation works splendid so far (I have yet to split the whole list...).

Thanks for your input...

Cheers,

Ookami.

[okami111]

--- link deleted ---

[DanniDin]

The Beta Looks Great :)

Exactly How I Thought it Should Be ;)

Maybe You Should Extend the Left Margins of the Main Page So it Won't Collide with the Menu Stripe

Cheers,

Danni.

[Emp3r0r]

First off, thank-you for a valuable freeware resource

1) i think categories should be in a table on the left (always viewable), not in that javascript stuff

2) it took me a minute to clearly see how to find something

3) you need a better page to start with, not one with all that information you'd only wanna know about if you clicked "ABOUT", but one that gives you direct access to the resources

[DanniDin]

wsabstract.com/script/scr...menu.shtml (http://wsabstract.com/script/script2/staticmenu.shtml)

[okami111]

> First off, thank-you for a valuable freeware resource

:)

> 1) i think categories should be in a table on the left (always viewable), not in that javascript stuff

Hmm, don't know, looks pretty ugly to me...

> 2) it took me a minute to clearly see how to find something

Could you write what to need to be improved... I plan to add a search feature (as the list is splitted you can't use the crtl+f feature :) ).

> 3) you need a better page to start with, not one with all that information you'd only wanna know about if you clicked "ABOUT", but one that gives you direct access to the resources

Again, what do you mean... The start page is the intro.html; what resources? The intro page is only interesting for the download and for the folks who see the list for the first time... There is a link section and there will be probably some links in the sidebar (if you mean that by resources).

Thanks for your input (and Danni, I should write a automatized thank you program for you, LOL ).

Cheers...

[DanniDin]

(and Danni, I should write a automatized thank you program for you, LOL )
:lol:

Cheers,

Danni.

[Ookami]

* bump *

As I don't have any time on working on my list, right now, I will maybe include the next good recommandations into the next update...

Cheers,

Mijo.

[personal]

Originally posted by okami111

Dear forum members (all guest can stop reading ;) ),

after a loong time I want to update my Freeware list (for those who do not know what I'm talking about www.flexion.org/team/okami/list.html (http://www.flexion.org/team/okami/list.html) ) and I need help in some areas...

1.) Webdesign, I want to split the list in n pages, but without frames and the navigation system should also be usable offline (That was my idea of the list, see offline what program is for ;-) ).

design: what about the HowTo pages format? great for offline viewing imho

I also need comments for:

* A nice new name (as I want to expand the list as the ultimate Multimedia reference)

Free LOng Window list? FLOWlist :)

* How to change the usability (what categories etc.)
* How many pages should it have (1,2,3, more?)
* for a new grading system

suggestion: have 2 grades, 1 for the stability (alpha, beta, stable) and 1 for the ongoing development (been there-done that, promising, gone and long forgotten, radical drive devel, etc)
that way new users will be able to see whats up and coming or go with an old/reliable/stable solution


* and of course I need the links of all those secret and hidden, unfamous little programs :-)

If there will be enough comments the change can be expected in about 2 weeks (it will be a gigantic update).

Thanks and Bye.

Last but not least, to Doom9 if you do not want to have your nice forum abused by such lame and boring postings, then please delete this one.

Mijo.


cya
personal

[Steady]

I just noticed that my old program WAV4MP3 is listed there:) I have been getting emails from its homepage on geocities saying I have exceeded my bandwidth. Not bad for something I wrote back in 1997.

[Ookami]

Oh, I always wanted to ask you, if you're the one... Man, I know your work from my beginnings in the DVD backup scene (whoa, long time ago).

Quite old program... Must be nostalgic for you to find it listed somewhere :) .

Cheers,

Mijo.

Originally posted by Steady
I just noticed that my old program WAV4MP3 is listed there:) I have been getting emails from its homepage on geocities saying I have exceeded my bandwidth. Not bad for something I wrote back in 1997.

[Ookami]

> design: what about the HowTo pages format? great for offline viewing imho

Er, what HowTo pages? From where? Links please...

> Free LOng Window list? FLOWlist

LOL

> suggestion: have 2 grades, 1 for the stability (alpha, beta, stable) and 1 for the ongoing development (been there-done that, promising, gone and long forgotten, radical drive devel, etc)
that way new users will be able to see whats up and coming or go with an old/reliable/stable solution


Hmm, could you elaborate this a little bit. I didn't quite get it.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Ookami]

Hello,

Michael has released his german translation:

http://www.michael-moenning.de/_freeware/listge.zip

Also, do not forget to look at his homepage (freeware tools listings ;-) ):

http://www.michael-moenning.de/

Thanks, Michael!

Cheers,

Ookami.

[MichaelMoenning]

Hi from Germany!

I've to thank Ookami for the pleasure to translate a part of
this famous freeware list that appears on famous sites like
the Q-Bert's and Doom9's :cool: .

I've enjoyed the work and i'm happy about the many new
DVD/Video/Audio programs as a part of my homepage :D .

Cheers,

Michael

[personal]

Originally posted by Ookami
> design: what about the HowTo pages format? great for offline viewing imho

Er, what HowTo pages? From where? Links please...

http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html

> Free LOng Window list? FLOWlist

LOL

MAssive Dvd Backup Archiving List ? MADBAL
i think i am on a roll here :)

> suggestion: have 2 grades, 1 for the stability (alpha, beta, stable) and 1 for the ongoing development (been there-done that, promising, gone and long forgotten, radical drive devel, etc)
that way new users will be able to see whats up and coming or go with an old/reliable/stable solution


Hmm, could you elaborate this a little bit. I didn't quite get it.

come to think of it... the stability of the program shows in the version (alpha, beta, etc) so lets forget about it.
however i think that should be a grade for the ongoing development, meaning how fast new & improved versions are coming out.
if a program is 1-2 years old users should know about it and try to find and use a new up and coming program.
hope i cleared things a bit

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Cheers,

Mijo.

[Ookami]

> design: what about the HowTo pages format? great for offline viewing imho

Er, what HowTo pages? From where? Links please...

http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto...DEX/howtos.html

- :( "Invalid URL

You have tried to access a page that does not exist on this web server."


> Free LOng Window list? FLOWlist

LOL

MAssive Dvd Backup Archiving List ? MADBAL
i think i am on a roll here

-Yep, you surely are, keep going... IMO, FLOWlist is better than MADBAL... Hehe...

come to think of it... the stability of the program shows in the version (alpha, beta, etc) so lets forget about it.
however i think that should be a grade for the ongoing development, meaning how fast new & improved versions are coming out.
if a program is 1-2 years old users should know about it and try to find and use a new up and coming program.
hope i cleared things a bit

- Well, for that you can use,already, the "release date".

Please, keep it up. And sorry for the really late reply.

Cheers...

[Ookami]

Hi y'all...

It's alive (at least the beta ;-) ).

after I've worked on my Freeware list (most of the work is still in obscure
txt files ;-) ), I've thought to ask a few people (again) for their opinions. As I didn't
want to open a new thread on the forum I used this one.

So, my main problem is that I have about 80 new programs to add. Altough I've splitted the list, some categories are way to big (or are getting too big). For instance the video category would be gigantic after I insert all of those new programs... So I thought, that I my main issue should be reorganizing the categories.

But there's another catch, as I want to improve this list even more
(ultimate freeware reference of all multimedia programs, quite megalomaniac, IMO :-) ), it would be great if this new categories are already made for that new perspective. But I was unable to think of good categories.

Some of my thoughts:

Include new categories like:

MPEG 1 and 2 encoding, processing (VCD,SVCD)
CAPTURE (for all those capture programs like VD, FreeVCR etc.)
AVI processing

In the attachment you can find the beta3. I've done maybe 20-30% of the work, and I'm way too slow. Right now, I'm thinking of uploading one of the next betas to my Ookami page (http://ookami.iwebland.com/), so that the
very old last update isn't too alone out there. Hmm...

P.s.: Don't laugh at the ??? and the strange texts etc. This wasn't meant for publishing, but as I said, I'm too slow, I need some further input.

Thank you for your time,

Mijo.

[BlackSun]

Keep up the good work !!

[Ookami]

@BlackSun:

Thanks! I will! BTW, shall I add the PowerDivX player? :D

@all:

I think I've found, finally, a way to reorganize the categories for the next update:

Rename:

Audio to Audio decoding
Tools without a category to ?
Players and Starters to Video Players and Starters

Add:

Video Capture related
AVI processing
MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 ((S)VCD included)
MPEG 4 (Divx ;-) included)

Remove:

Ripping packages

What do you think?

If no one has a better idea/suggestion I will start, these days to reorganize the list. After that, everything should go faster.

Cheers,

Ookie.

[Ookami]

Just wanted to say that I've uploaded the new Freeware list on:

http://ookami.iwebland.com

"The new Freeware list of multimedia programs"

For comments, suggestions etc. mail me (or PM)...

I will not misuse Doom9's forum anymore with this, so every now and then drop by the iwebland site to look for a new update (or you can look at Oleg's site or Q-bert's, they're posting the news).

Thread closed and Cheers :D .

Mijo.