World Wide Sandbox » Project News

DupliFinder Alpha Release

Dean Pearce — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:51:27 +0000

As promised, here is a compiled installer as well as the Visual C# 2008 source code for your enjoyment. A few things to note: I can’t guarantee that it will work on your system, I can’t guarantee that it will work as advertised, and that all crashes have a reason. For developers I can’t guarantee that the source code is readable . Hopefully you’ll see through my poor commenting and naming conventions and see the potential for this code . Anyways, this is by no means a finished product, but I am releasing it to one keep myself on schedule, and two make a duplicate file finding program available for free (finally!). The installer may only be 64-bit (the publish options in Visual Studio are so confusing!) so if that’s the case you will need to compile it yourself. Mature releases will have a 64 and 32-bit build available (with probably a real and better install system).

As usual, please leave feedback relating to functionality or utter destruction in the comments below, and remember it’s alpha software so use at your own risk! It won’t delete random files, but don’t think it won’t actually delete all the files when you select them with the checkbox and choose Erase!

In Development Land Again: DupliFinder, Duplicate Image Removal

Dean Pearce — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:13:28 +0000

Interesting enough, the more stressed I become the more I desire to program. And not just random programming, but programming to solve a problem (namely one of me ). What I’ve been working on over the past couple days is a nice Windows utility to work with and manage duplicate files. Right now it works on the head of the file (64KB) or entire file for comparison, but future versions (such as the one I’m working on now) are going to include audio stream matching (to compare audio regardless of the format or compression) and video frame matching along with a host of other options. Here’s a screen shot of it in action:

DupliFinder Duplicate File Finder

As you can see the UI is almost complete, allowing you to select a root folder and you can scan current and sub directories optionally. The only problem with it at the moment is it’s single-threaded, so when it is given a large folder to process it feels as if the program has frozen, but don’t worry it’s crunching away in the background.

The feature I’m adding right now is a preview/compare pane for easy verification that the file is the same, as well as giving the user to option to delete the “duplicate” or “original” in case of file confusion. This will be ready to go for the v1.0 release of the utility.

If anyone is interested, I can package up a preview version that has some quirks and the single-threaded problem. I had looked all over for a program that would allow you to delete duplicate images and other files and it’s ridiculous the amount of money those scam-like software companies try and charge for such simple (but effective) software! Anyways I’m contributing back to the community by releasing this under GPLv2. On top of handling photos (for which I’ve seen some software cost $30US!) it will handle all sorts of stream and data related information.

For any programmers out there reading this, it was programmed using Visual C# 2008 on a Windows 7 development box, so all sorts of shiny Windows 7 features may start peeking through soon .

If you have any comments, please feel free to leave them below, and if you would like to play with the source or the compiled version of this app, just let me know in the comments and I will fire off some more information and a package. That’s all for now!

People and the World of Information

Dean Pearce — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:22:03 +0000

I guess it shouldn’t come as a shock to me that there are still people out there who do not believe that the internet is a great medium for information sharing and gathering, but in some cases I see their points. One of the latest authors to do so is Ray Bradbury, who believes that the internet is not something where tangible work can be done and shared. And while I share in his belief that libraries are a persistent and necessary tool in civilization, I don’t share his belief that the internet is not a powerful medium in his own. So to satisfy myself, I produced the following binary table:

The MPAA... So Much Hate

There, now I feel much better being in the (1,1) column of this binary table of information love. Either way, share your comments on your beliefs about the internet.

Funny Web 2.0 Video and Programming Ideas

Dean Pearce — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:35:51 +0000

I have been into following all these Web 2.0 news bits lately so closely that I am slowly becoming a part of them. I have begun Twittering (as you may have noticed from my side bar, quite a nice addition I might add) as well as am an active member on a variety of Web 2.0 sites. I have been getting engaged in them to figure out how they do it, what makes a company like that successful.

As a developer, I would love to create something in my spare time that other people find of use, and thus I am considering working on my pet project to include a variety of features that are Web 2.0 friendly, maybe create a mashup of a few services. Aside from the great personal experience, a new service might have the potential to actually help people enjoy the web to its fullest. The service is going to be based around the movie information and review site, however I am looking at going with tighter integration into other services, such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and others. Will this work? Will I ever get around to putting myself into programming mode? Do I have the skills to do something like that? Those are the questions, and I can say the answer is yes, but not right now. Exam season is creeping up again, and I need to concentrate on those. Have fun coding, and look for some new code and papers in the repositories.

The Hunt Begins!

Dean Pearce — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:01:57 +0000

Well, as for many co-op students seeking employment in the spring, I have begun my epic job hunt. I spent the better part of the day tweaking resumes and cover letters and submitting to various companies and through the co-op service the university provides. I feel that I would be a valuable asset, as my programming and design projects are quite good.

Regardless, due to a life overload (Unreal! I have things to do constantly!) some of my projects might get neglected. Not forgotten, but put on hold until I regain my weekends to tinker again (if only things like labs and assignments didn’t get in the way) there will unlikely be any significant progress on my projects. However, reading week will provide me with a nonstop week of anime and programming! There might be some updates coming up soon then. I have begun scripting my movie rating website, and am hoping to get a good chunk of it sorted out by the time the break comes. This will be my first venture into the concept of fully generic styling, with full multi-language support, so wish me luck.

Aside from that, as usual, I hope that people who stumble upon this website or who willingly come here will have some input. And do read my short Java paper, apparently it’s of acceptable quality based on a random sample of people who read it. Who knows, maybe I will get into technical writing yet.