Tiny KeyCounter (Project?)

[alpha]

Tiny KeyCounter (http://www.piqsoftware.com/)

A similar project to Project Dolphin/Orca has arisen. Apparently it uses none of the PD/O code, and it catches mouse clicks as well as keystrokes (looks like support for the mouse wheel is being worked on too). Doesn't look like team creation is available yet, but it can't hurt to get a headstart can it? ;)

[the-mk]

hi!

i have registered myself to the tiny-key-counter-project too!

it's great! their page looks better than the orca page!

and: i'm very disappointed of project orca: to compare the two clients, i typed too fast and now i am unranked at project orca! :cry:

i know that the guys at orca are still developing the whole thing... but i hope, that they change their way of tracking cheating users! (the 4 keys per second limit is bullsh#t i think...)

i have installed the orca-client (hmm, it was still there, but i changed the pulse server :D) on the computer of my little sister too and she is a real "chat-monster" (typing a lot AND fast; and she doesn't know how to cheat that thing, she only knows how to chat :D ) and after some pulses, she was unranked too.

erm, i think that the tkc counts more keys than the dolphin/orca-client does. before i started writing a letter to my friend i pulsed both clients and started writing. finishing the letter the tkc was leading a few keys (about 10 or 20 keys per 1000 keystrokes or so). it would be interesting which extra-keys the tkc counted...

hmm, it's my first post, excuse my bad english...
______
the-mk

[alpha]

Originally posted by the-mk
erm, i think that the tkc counts more keys than the dolphin/orca-client does. before i started writing a letter to my friend i pulsed both clients and started writing. finishing the letter the tkc was leading a few keys (about 10 or 20 keys per 1000 keystrokes or so). it would be interesting which extra-keys the tkc counted...

I had suspected this but never really checked the numbers until you just mentioned it. I read your post about half an hour ago. At that time PO was 5 keys behind. Now PO is 11 keys behind.


hmm, it's my first post, excuse my bad english...

You type better english than some who the language is native to.

[the-mk]

do you have any idea which extra keys the tkc is counting?

or could it be possible that the dolphin/orca-client forgets to count some keys if i type a little faster?

:D in the tkc-stats i'm in the top 15 of mouseclicks, because i played too much minesweeper last night :smoking:

it would be interesting how the newer version of tkc shall prevent cheating! hmm, there is a file called tkc.dat where you can see the number of keys and mouseclicks in plain text. i tried to change (only to test if they prevent cheating) the numbers and pulsed but it didn't work. i think they write it back on harddisk for the case the computer crashes or something. (i could try to shut down the client, change the numbers and restart to see what's happening, but i'm too lazy to do that...)

someone in an other forum complained that the tkc needs more cpu-cycles. my dolphin/orca-client is running a bit longer (a few days i think) on my system and the windows-taskmanager told me that it needed "only" 5 seconds of cpu-time. the tkc wasn't running as long as the other (at least 12 hours) and needed 21 seconds. but the tkc needs fewer memory (about 600 kb)

yippie! i checked back my keycount-status on the orca-page and i'm ranked again! i don't know why but it's ok... it's working again

[alpha]

Well I'll probably do some testing this evening (the gf is out :rolleyes: ). I doubt that its possible to type too fast for either of the applications - I've reached 120wpm and it seems to keep up, and no doubt people have mashed the keyboard with their fist and been given credit accordingly.

I really like that TKC counts mouse clicks, its an interested stat. I don't really care about how cheating is handled, as long as it doesn't affect me. I take part in these kinds of projects to see how much I type (or click), not to see if I can beat person X.

After over 8 hours on my Windows XP machine, the PO client has used 1 second of CPU time and is eating 2,336K of RAM. The TKC client has used 5 seconds of CPU time and is eating 2,384K of RAM. This wasn't so similar yesterday though, I thought I noticed the TKC client using significantly more CPU time than PO.

[alpha]

Got it. TKC counts num/caps/scroll lock toggling. PO doesn't.

[the-mk]

On my Windows 2000 machine my clients need more memory than yours on your XP machine... (pulse.exe: 4964 kb; keycount.exe: 4432 kb)

It's funny, when I started to write that post i pulsed both clients and now the TKC is leading with 2 keystrokes!

You are right! TKC counts the num, caps and scroll-lock-keys (i tested before pulsing the clients), BUT: I didn't use this keys while i wrote my letter and that post!

It would be really interesting where the two extra-keys (hmm, now i had a look to the clients and TKC leads with five keys) at the TKC-client are coming from.

[Supp]

on my W2K machine TKP uses only 4388-4392kb

[alpha]

As I understand it, Windows XP minimizes the amount of RAM an application uses over time. I'm not sure how. I think it only affects minimized applications.

the-mk: I'll have another shot at reproducing those 'extra' keystrokes tomorrow.

Supp: Hmph, you've passed me in the keystroke stats already :swear:

[the-mk]

some minutes ago i finished my "test"-writing to compare the TKC and PO.

the result is:

TKC counts the following extra-keys instead of PO:

"<"
">"
"-"
"_"
[CAPSLOCK]
[SCROLL-LOCK]
[BREAK]
[NUM-LOCK]

and that's the reason why TKC leaded some keystrokes while i wrote former posts!

i hope that i haven't forgotten to test any key-combination on my windows-keyboard :D

[the-mk]

hmm, at the moment i see that the www.piqsoftware.com (TKC) was updated...

the release version 1.0 should be available, but i can't log in (i type my username and pwd into the formular und press login, but i only get to the login-page again... perhaps a "under-development"-thing) to get that new version as discribed in their news

i'll have another try tomorrow

[Supp]

Just logged in, w/o problem...so try it now.

[DrHanser]

Originally posted by the-mk
some minutes ago i finished my "test"-writing to compare the TKC and PO.

the result is:

TKC counts the following extra-keys instead of PO:

"<"
">"
"-"
"_"
[CAPSLOCK]
[SCROLL-LOCK]
[BREAK]
[NUM-LOCK]


No.

TKC counts shift+[key] as two keys, whereas Orca counts that as one.

Beyond that, the TKC page makes baby jesus cry.

[DrHanser]

i know that the guys at orca are still developing the whole thing... but i hope, that they change their way of tracking cheating users! (the 4 keys per second limit is bullsh#t i think...)

It's quite reasonable to expect that one cannot average 4 keys per second over a 24 hour period of time. That bit is still being tweaked, however, and it will even out in the end.


On my computer, the Orca client is using 848K of RAM.

[alpha]

Unless I'm missing something it appears that stats have been reset for the release of v1.0.

I quite like v1.0, the systray icon lights up when you click, scroll (mouse wheel) and keypress. You can login via a friendly dialog and access the stats in two clicks :D

[the-mk]

Originally posted by DrHanser
It's quite reasonable to expect that one cannot average 4 keys per second over a 24 hour period of time. That bit is still being tweaked, however, and it will even out in the end.


On my computer, the Orca client is using 848K of RAM.

correct me, but i think that the guys at PO calculate the keys per second from the last pulse to the pulse of now. and if i'm (hmm, it's my sister with her own account that types so fast) chatting to another person i have more than 4 kps, but i do not have it the whole day (i must eat, drink, sleep, and doing other things :D). and that's the reason why they have unranked my sister. she pulses every hour, and there she has got a little bit more than 4 kps (did i mention that she's a chat-monster? chatting for hours without break!)

sure, you can't have a keyrate of 4 kps or more over 24 hours (with the exception of you're not human :D)

if i'm not correct, on which kind of data are the keys per second calculated?

and: i got the new tkc-client! it's really cool! now it counts my scroll-wheel-activities (the beta-version didn't). when i tried to log in yesterday they could have done some upgrade-work or so...


TKC counts shift+[key] as two keys, whereas Orca counts that as one.

no!!! i've tested it a few minutes ago with the version 1.0 of the TKC! if i want to type a capital a (or b or c...) the TKC counts it as one key!

[alpha]

Originally posted by the-mk
TKC counts the following extra-keys instead of PO:

"<"
">"
"-"
"_"
[CAPSLOCK]
[SCROLL-LOCK]
[BREAK]
[NUM-LOCK]

On my machine PO and TKC count '<' and '>'.
TCK does count '-' and '_' while PO doesn't.

[wirthi]

Originally posted by alpha
On my machine PO and TKC count '<' and '>'.
TCK does count '-' and '_' while PO doesn't.
Perhaps a problem with different layouts? I use the German keyboard layout (just like the-mk), and monitor the same behavior of the original Pulse client: none of "-", "_", "<" and ">" is counted, while the "-" on the numpad is counted.

[alpha]

Originally posted by wirthi
Perhaps a problem with different layouts? I use the German keyboard layout (just like the-mk), and monitor the same behavior of the original Pulse client: none of "-", "_", "<" and ">" is counted, while the "-" on the numpad is counted.

Ah. I should think the PO and TKC admin[s] will want to hear about this.

[wirthi]

Originally posted by alpha
Ah. I should think the PO and TKC admin[s] will want to hear about this. Why can't I have those ideas?

http://www.project-orca.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=107

Thanks, alpha

[the-mk]

newer version of client available: release version 1.0a, but there is no need to upgrade

and: stats are down until january 29 :cry:

maybe they set us up the stats and the team-thing :D

[the-mk]

Hmm, did that tiny key counter project die?

They hoped to finish something new (stats, client, etc) within this week, but this week is ending fast...

Does anybody know more than I do? :confused:

[Anarchy99]

all I know is this key counter thing is kinda cool

never knew I beat up my keyboard like this :bang:

wonder what my rank will be on this when it is back up and running :D

[alpha]

Apparently a new server is being 'built'. I would say the first week of February is over now, but things sometimes take longer than you expected. Just let the software continue counting those keystrokes/clicks/scrolls and submit one hell of a bundle when the server is up and running :)

[alpha]

OK so the project definately isn't dead:


TKC has recently changed servers. The current server is in sub-optimal condition and may perform poorly for a while. We will be slowly upgrading, enhancing, and optimizing the new server to bring you the best possible service.

Taken from http://keycount.piqsoftware.com/

[alpha]

Well, there is now a TKC forum (http://www.piqsoftware.com/dev/forums/viewforum.asp?forumid=11). From one of the posts, it doesn't look like the keys/clicks/scrolls we have been 'buffering' will be counted towards anything:


Unfortunately, all of the data you are saving will not be compatible with the new encryption system, so your counts will start from 0. Sorry about that.

..or am I just misinterpreting? The second half of the first sentence seems irrelevant compared to the first half. I may have to run over to the forum and post myself :)

[alpha]

It has been confirmed. We cannot submit anything we have buffered with v1.0 when the new server is up. So it makes sense to just uninstall the software and wait. A new version will be released (which I mentioned earlier in the thread), the upgrade to which will be compulsory in order to submit; a new form of encryption is being implemented.

[the-mk]

Hi!

A new client (ver 1.5) and stats are available...

Team-creation would be interesting, but I think at the moment not available...

Who of us signed in at the tiny key counter project? I saw anarchy99 and alpha on the "all registred TKC users"-page, anybody else... Perhaps I could make some stats again :D

[Anarchy99]

Im there, 14th place and climbing :cheers:

[the-mk]

Hi!

I'm there too... and I'm 27th...

How often do you submit your keycount, mouseclicks etc.? Hourly, daily or manually?

[Anarchy99]

I used to do hourly but it is easier for me to do it manually so I can send when I have enough to make a good jump:D

[Anarchy99]

whos in third UH HUH

whos in third UH HUH

ya baby :cheers:

:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

[Anarchy99]

my last submission was 4 resume's and ten cover letters rewritten about a hundred times each for different companies

when I was done with them I checked the key-counter and just about crapped when I saw how much was there

wwwhhhhooooooooohhhhhhhooooooooooooooooo

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

[the-mk]

Congratulations Anarchy! :jester: :|party|: :cheers: :thumbs:

I stopped counting my keys with TKC because I had to reboot my machine and I'm too lazy to restart that TKC. And one keycounting program is enough.

I'm using the Orca-Client, but I'm missing the progress at the whole orca-project. They spoke about new clients and cheat-reducing measures but I didn't see anything until now. :rolleyes:

[Wedge]

hey,

I'm having trouble sumbitting my stats for TKC to the server... wondering if any of you guys knew what i should do or knew if there was another server i could upload my stats to?

thanks :)

beware a99 i'm hunting u down now in TKC