[_Sam]

Kyek can you explain Qouch since you're familiar with it?
I only have SABnzbd haven't heard of Sick Beard or CouchPotato. Will I need these too or are they just similar tools to SABnzbd?
Would this tool make it possible for me to initiate a movie download while I'm not at home?

[Kyek]

_Sam, on 20 February 2012 - 07:15 AM, said:

Kyek can you explain Qouch since you're familiar with it?
I only have SABnzbd haven't heard of Sick Beard or CouchPotato. Will I need these too or are they just similar tools to SABnzbd?
Would this tool make it possible for me to initiate a movie download while I'm not at home?

You can do that with plain old SABnzbd. You can start a download from an NZB file, a Newzbin ID, whatever you have. In fact, if you have it hooked up to Newzbin, you just need to make sure bookmark checking is on, and it will autodownload anything you hit the bookmark icon on at Newzbin's site.

With that said, though, CouchPotato (for Movies) and SickBeard (for TV shows) make the process much nicer. They're not SAB replacements, they're addon tools for SAB. You might have already run into how painful RSS-based autodownloading on SAB can be. Tell it you want all episodes of a TV show as they're posted, and you'll get the new episodes -- but you'll also get every single old episode that people post. SickBeard, on the other hand, knows when all the new episodes from all TV shows are airing, it knows what you already have in your library, and it knows whether or not you want it to collect old episodes you don't have. It will instruct SAB to download new episodes as they come out, for whatever TV shows you have set up. It can also instruct it to download entire seasons of old shows, or just individual episodes, or whatever you want -- and update Plex when they come in, if you use Plex. And of course, you get to tell it what video qualities are acceptable, what language you want, etc.

CouchPotato is similar, in that you tell it what movies you want at what qualities, and it will check a few times a day for movies that match your specs and instruct SAB to download what it finds. You can even tell CouchPotato that you want a certain movie and that, if for some reason a 480p is posted before a 1080p, to download the 480p but replace it with the 1080p version when it becomes available, which is slick. You can also have it avoid cams, screeners, whatever, in the same way. So now, when you see a trailer for a movie you want to see but isn't worth a trip to the theater, you can just whip out your phone and type the first few letters of the name and forget about it

Having all of that in the same app is pretty handy

[_Sam]

Oh wow thanks for the explanation
Yes exactly I've had so many times when SAB just started downloading old Episodes of TV shows I had subscribed. So Sick Beard and CouchPotato are still going through the RSS, but are filtering it?

[Kyek]

_Sam, on 20 February 2012 - 08:20 AM, said:

Oh wow thanks for the explanation
Yes exactly I've had so many times when SAB just started downloading old Episodes of TV shows I had subscribed. So Sick Beard and CouchPotato are still going through the RSS, but are filtering it?

Short answer: yes
Long answer: Yeeeeeeeeesssss (lol, just kidding). Both those apps allow you to have multiple nzb sources -- Newzbin, NZBMatrix, and a few others. Newzbin is by FAR the most accurate (to the point where I disable all the others because they kept giving me shit I didn't want), but it would still be inaccurate to call these apps "RSS filters" because they can scrape from many different types of sources. It's also a little more than that because, for each of these sources, it needs a way to determine the quality and stuff.

[Leamsi]

Windows:
Screensnpar: Another screenshot app. Lets you use screensnapr's server for image hosting, or use your own via FTP.
Google Music: Awesome Music client, lets you backup music into Google's servers, so you can listen on a whole plethora of internet-connected devices. Not the best client out there, but I like it.
TeamViewer: Remotely connect to any computer with the app open. There's no need to install, as you can run it from within the setup files.

[Quinn]

I'm going to add in ZNC since no one has mentioned it yet. It's an IRC bouncer, though I bet we all knew that by now.

[NeilHanlon]

Windows:
mDesktop - A desktop emulator for windows which brings multiple desktop environments to Windows users (like there are already on *nix and OS X)
F.lux - (Available on all platforms) A wicked sweet lighting manager that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned. Makes the color on the screen warm when the sun sets so you don't hurt your eyes while typing in the dark.
LibreOffice - Better than OpenOffice, in my opinion.
IceChat - My go to IRC client. Don't ask me why. I like it. It works. Don't question it.

[callumacrae]

F.LUX <3

Forgot about that xD

[gibbonweb]

@ F.lux: No way I'm letting an app distort my color management. If the sun sets, I switch the lights on in my room (doesn't hurt my eyes either )

[Cyril]

CloudApp instantly upload screenshots. Can also upload text snippets, files, and has specific "plugins" for tons of apps (like, I can upload a png version of whatever I'm working on in Photoshop)

Evernote is an app to take notes and shit. Syncs across all devices, and you can also use it to "save" files (Safari Mobile has no obvious way to save PDFs, so I "Open in Evernote" and save it)

Flux already been said; brightness management. Love that little app (even though I disable it while designing)

TotalFinder takes the Mac Finder, and adds tabs and tons of other stuff. Couldn't live without this one.

CrossOver is a commercial fork of the Wine project - but totally worth the 45$. They've improved it loads, and I mainly use it for games (Battlefield 2, Half Life 2, etc) or Windows apps.

Skype is, well, Skype. However, it's become really slick ever since they added Facebook Messenger support. I haven't checked, but last I knew, that was a beta release. Probably official by now as well.

[NeilHanlon]

gibbonweb, on 21 February 2012 - 03:57 AM, said:

@ F.lux: No way I'm letting an app distort my color management. If the sun sets, I switch the lights on in my room (doesn't hurt my eyes either )

Turns on Gandalf The White voice:

"YOU FOOL!"

No, seriously. Do you never use your computer at night? It's not like it completely destroys your colors, it simply makes colors warmer. You can disable it with a click of the mouse for color-sensitive work.

[Quinn]

Cyril, on 21 February 2012 - 04:17 AM, said:

Evernote is an app to take notes and shit. Syncs across all devices, and you can also use it to "save" files (Safari Mobile has no obvious way to save PDFs, so I "Open in Evernote" and save it)

For me, PDFs just open in iBook. I'm not quite sure how it works without iBooks installed.

[gibbonweb]

NeilHanlon, on 21 February 2012 - 09:34 AM, said:

Turns on Gandalf The White voice:

"YOU FOOL!"

No, seriously. Do you never use your computer at night? It's not like it completely destroys your colors, it simply makes colors warmer. You can disable it with a click of the mouse for color-sensitive work.

I don't get why I would prefer a warmer (i.e. yellow tinted) screen in any scenario. I'm glad I finally own a computer which can produce a bright white and if the screen is too bright I'll just reduce the intensity . I really don't get the point, but it must be a subjective thing.

[callumacrae]

It makes the screen less blue. Eyes and blue light do not mix well :-)

Seriously, enable it when it is light, carry on using it until it is dark, and then turn it off. It almost hurts.

[Kyek]

gibbonweb, on 21 February 2012 - 11:05 AM, said:

I don't get why I would prefer a warmer (i.e. yellow tinted) screen in any scenario. I'm glad I finally own a computer which can produce a bright white and if the screen is too bright I'll just reduce the intensity . I really don't get the point, but it must be a subjective thing.

You know, I had the exact same opinion when I first heard about flu.x. In fact, there are probably a few posts by me on this forum, just hating on it like crazy.

But then I tried it for a week.

If you do it right, you won't even notice that the screen is warmer at night. In fact, you'll have no idea it's even running at all. But at some point, you'll think about it. You'll look at your screen at night and go "Is this stupid Flu.x thing even working?", and you'll click the button to disable it. What follows is excruciating eye pain. You wonder how in the world you could ever stand to look at your monitor at night. If you're in a dark room, you'll look up from your monitor and realize you've just lost all the night vision you've been taking for granted since you've been running f.lux. And you'll slowly remember that, even though you didn't realize it at the time, your screen used to be really uncomfortable to stare at in the evening, and since installing f.lux, you've been incredibly more comfortable. Even if you dive the brightness down at night.

I'm not sure I could go without it now. When I reformat, it's one of the first things I install. Hell, I'm running it on my iPhone because it's so much more comfortable to pick up and glance at in a dark bedroom that way, even with its sensors actively modifying the brightness levels.

Your first day, you'll hate it. The second day, you'll think it's pointless. Day 3, you'll start forgetting it's there. After Day 7, try disabling it at night. I dare you.

Edit: Annnnnd Callum just said what I did in like 400 fewer words.

[NeilHanlon]

Kyek's right. You get to a point at which you don't even notice it's running. It simply... works.

[callumacrae]

Kyek, on 21 February 2012 - 11:21 AM, said:

Edit: Annnnnd Callum just said what I did in like 400 fewer words.

You were more persuasive, though :-P

[Peppe]

Never heard of Flux before and I'm trying it out now. It feels a bit annoying that the colors are warmer but my eyes feel pretty good

[dida]

None of you mentioned it so: FireFox 8
It's a program used for browsing the world wide web and more!

[callumacrae]

dida, on 21 February 2012 - 12:58 PM, said:

None of you mentioned it so: FireFox 8
It's a program used for browsing the world wide web and more!

Ew :-P