Neowin.net News Screen Saver

[Daniel F. Administrators]

Version 2.0 is out!

What's new:

• Configuration screen supports Windows XP themes
  
• Main news, software news, gamer news, and new forum posts can now be enabled and disabled
  
• Support for gamer news added (see above), not enabled by default
  
• The title text in the screensaver is changed for each section
  
• The user can now choose to go to the page associated with the active section when [Enter] is pressed, ex. the software section is active, the user presses [Enter], and Neowin opens to software news
  
• About box added (with scrolling credits!)
  

@Voodoo: Could you add/update software news with this new version, as well as update the Neowin file to this? Thanks a lot, for this and all the support. BTW: look at the about box under Special Thanks.

done & thanks for the thanks ;)

[Smufie]

Just installed the new update, and I can't seem to find either the new options or the about box... does the installer overwrite the files automatically?

[itsnotabigtruck]

Just installed the new update, and I can't seem to find either the new options or the about box... does the installer overwrite the files automatically?

The link on the Software News page didn't get updated. :p Download here.

@Voodoo: Could you please update the file? I just downloaded and it's version 1.1. Thanks a lot. :p It looks like some people downloaded it from the news page which links to the outdated Neowin copy and they got same old 1.1 instead of 2.0. :rofl:

Edited November 29, 2003 by memodude

[itsnotabigtruck]

I just found a mouse delay bug, which I just fixed. I'll roll this as well as proxy support in v2.1.

[Smufie]

Ah, that's a lot better, thanks :)

Again, good work! You should post in the Dev Forum how you make a screensaver in C# :-)

Oh, and just a quicky Q: How do you enable support for XP themes without a manifest while? Did you embed it? Because I tried that and it didn't work! Thanks in advance!

[itsnotabigtruck]

Ah, that's a lot better, thanks :)

Again, good work! You should post in the Dev Forum how you make a screensaver in C# :-)

Oh, and just a quicky Q: How do you enable support for XP themes without a manifest while? Did you embed it? Because I tried that and it didn't work! Thanks in advance!

Yes, I used an embedded manifest. This is a good FAQ for embedding manifests (requires VS.NET).

For everyone who has had proxy problems:

Try this new version of FastMemo.Services.RSS.dll which has proxy support. It uses your Internet Explorer proxy settings and does not support automatic configuration scripts, meaning you must have static proxy settings set in IE.

To install, download this file to your system folder (usually C:\WINDOWS\System32 on Windows XP, C:\WinNT\System32 on Windows 2000 and NT 4.0, and C:\WINDOWS\System on Windows 98 and ME).

[itsnotabigtruck]

Forgot the attachment. :p

FastMemo.Services.RSS.dll

[Daniel F. Administrators]

The link on the Software News page didn't get updated. :p Download here.

@Voodoo: Could you please update the file? I just downloaded and it's version 1.1. Thanks a lot. :p It looks like some people downloaded it from the news page which links to the outdated Neowin copy and they got same old 1.1 instead of 2.0. :rofl:

done

[itsnotabigtruck]

done

Thanks. But...I've got a new version. Could you please update the news post to that?

I know this is hectic, and maybe frustrating. You update the post, and I've dished out a new version. :rofl: I most likely won't have another version for a little while, I've just been adding lots of feature requests (2.0) and bugfixes (2.1, 1.1)! :p Thanks a lot for the help, the hosting, and updating the news post with each release. :D

[hav0c]

Cool stuff!! Thx (Y)

[itsnotabigtruck]

Cool stuff!! Thx (Y)

Glad you like it! :D

[Bubbo]

Is there any way you can stop it beeping every second if there is no net connection. I've just been out only to come back and find that its been steadily beeping for the last few hours.

[nicedreams]

Can you add some support for KVM's? I have 2 monitors, 2 computers, and one keyboard/mouse I use with a 2-port KVM. I have to press SCROLL LOCK + SCROLL LOCK to switch between PCs so when the screen saver is launched, if I press this to get to my other PC, the screen saver shuts off.

Can you have an option to make it so there is an option so you have to press ESC or something to turn off the screen saver? THX!

[itsnotabigtruck]

I will make it ignore Scroll Lock (a common switch key for KVMs) when pressed. :D

[itsnotabigtruck]

Is there any way you can stop it beeping every second if there is no net connection. I've just been out only to come back and find that its been steadily beeping for the last few hours.

I might add detection of an active Internet connection. :D However, this screensaver is more for always-on connections. :rofl: :p

[nicedreams]

Another thing...

Can you make it so you can cycle through different site's news and forums listings also? Have it like have a different theme for each site info that it shows.

Thanks for going to add the ingnore scroll lock key thing.

Do you think once you have finalized this program you will do like quoted?

[itsnotabigtruck]

@nicedreams: No. This is a Neowin screensaver. :p Sorry :rofl:!

[nicedreams]

no problem...

still a kick ass program. keep up the good work.

[mipra]

Great one..Have been enjoying it

[Yuxi]

Is it possible to have the Neowin logo at the top move around, if it stays in the same place it kind of defeats the purpose of a screen saver :)

I'm thinking the same thing... ;)

[Wolfhound]

As a suggestion to the neowin logo, you could keep it in it's notch but possibly include some sort of 3d Spin effect? Just something to move it around.

[WishX]

Has anyone else noticed that it's not rendering punctuation marks like apostrophes and such correctly? Not sure, but it almost looks like HTML of special characters. I noticed this when it was displaying the latest forum threads. I can only assume people used quotes or apostrophes in their topic titles.

[Smufie]

I think it's because XML doesn't support those characters completely.

[Japlabot]

when I had the screensaver running without a network connection, I got an error with .net framework....

See the end of this message for details on invoking

just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************

System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: The remote name could not be resolved.

  at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.CheckFinalStatus()

  at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncResult asyncResult)

  at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()

  at FastMemo.Services.RSS._FileDownloader.DownloadWithETags(Uri URI, String LastETag)

  at FastMemo.Services.RSS.RSSDocument..ctor(Uri URI)

  at FastMemo.NeoSaver.Form1.Timer1_Tick(Object sender, EventArgs e)

  at FastMemo.NeoSaver.Form1.Form1_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e)

  at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)

  at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()

  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)

  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()

  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.ContainerControl.WndProc(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WndProc(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)

  at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

************** Loaded Assemblies **************

mscorlib

    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0

    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573

    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/microsoft.net/framework/v1.1.4322/mscorlib.dll

----------------------------------------

FastMemo.NeoSaver

    Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0

    Win32 Version: 2.0.0.0

    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/System32/NEOWIN~1.SCR

----------------------------------------

Microsoft.VisualBasic

    Assembly Version: 7.0.5000.0

    Win32 Version: 7.10.3052.4

    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/microsoft.visualbasic/7.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/microsoft.visualbasic.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Windows.Forms

    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0

    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573

    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.windows.forms/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.windows.forms.dll

----------------------------------------

System

    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0

    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573

    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.dll

----------------------------------------

System.Drawing

    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0

    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573

    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.drawing/1.0.5000.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/system.drawing.dll

----------------------------------------

FastMemo.Services.XMLSettings

    Assembly Version: 1.0.1358.32101

    Win32 Version: 1.0.1358.32101

    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/System32/FastMemo.Services.XMLSettings.DLL

----------------------------------------

FastMemo.Services.Collections

    Assembly Version: 1.0.1358.31966

    Win32 Version: 1.0.1358.31966

    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/System32/FastMemo.Services.Collections.DLL

----------------------------------------

System.Xml

    Assembly Version: 1.0.5000.0

    Win32 Version: 1.1.4322.573

    CodeBase: file:///c:/windows/assembly/gac/system.xml/1.0.5000.0__b77a5c561934e089/system.xml.dll

----------------------------------------

FastMemo.Services.RSS

    Assembly Version: 1.0.1345.35550

    Win32 Version: 1.0.1345.35550

    CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/System32/FastMemo.Services.RSS.DLL

----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************

To enable just in time (JIT) debugging, the config file for this

application or machine (machine.config) must have the

jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.

The application must also be compiled with debugging

enabled.

For example:

<configuration>

    <system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />

</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception

will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the machine

rather than being handled by this dialog.

And not all the text fits on the screen @ 800x600

[Smufie]

Yes, I used an embedded manifest. This is a good FAQ for embedding manifests (requires VS.NET).

Hey, look what I just found in the Application class...

Application.EnableVisualStyles();

Initialize that command and you no longer need manifest files, makes it a lot easier! Just thought you would know :-)