Topics

1

Living Room / My daughter kind of stuck in France

« on: May 08, 2009, 05:32 PM »

My daughter Danielle is in France at the moment.  She went over in mid-March to take up an Au Pair position but lost her job after six weeks.

I'm encouraging her to find another position but in the mean tme we have to find her accommodation.  She has a tentative offer that doesn't start until late July.

I may have to bring her home to Australia which would be a real shame as we have put a lot of energy and money to get her there.

Do any forum members have any ideas as to the best places to look on the internet or contacts for short term (but relatively cheap) accommodation in France?

Regards,

Jeff

2

Living Room / Thank you for this site and the people here.

« on: June 19, 2007, 07:16 AM »

I am here today asking for your understanding that someone might want to bring up a serious personal issue on a forum which is primarily about software.

I do this because this is my third most frequently visited internet place behind my email and emaildiscussions.com where I help moderate.

I do this because I have received a great deal of pleasure from this site.

I do this because contributing and receiving from this site has been a good part of my life.

I do this because this site and the people here have helped me through the last six, very difficult months for me, even though you did not know it.

I do this because even though this is just an internet site and I have received wonderful support from my "real" life friends, I none the less regard many of you I have contact with on this site as my good friends also.

So I just let you know that my dear wife of 30+ years, Dawn, passed away yesterday after a six month battle with cancer.

In between caring for her, my visits to the DonationCoder site have been welcome therapy and respite for me.

I know that the experience of this site and the wonderful people here will be part of my future, to which I look forward with some joy.

Regards and best wishes to each of you,

Vaya con Dios,

Jeff

3

General Software Discussion / Extracting executable program shortcuts from start menu?

« on: May 21, 2007, 08:43 AM »

Does anyone know of an application that will extract from one's start menu onle those shortcuts which link to executable programs?  I remember I did have such a utility once but cannot find it now.

Thanks,  Jeff

4

Found Deals and Discounts / Bit du Jour 60% discount on MainType font manager

« on: May 16, 2007, 07:23 AM »

Bits du Jour has the font manager MainType today, May 16, for $19.60 (60% off).  The DC discount is currently 50%.  Positive references to this program can be found elsewhere on this forum.

Jeff

5

Found Deals and Discounts / Bits du jour/UltraRecall discount approx 60%

« on: May 15, 2007, 09:13 AM »

Bits du Jour discount for today 15 May is UltraRecall.  Standard version is reduced from $49.00 to $19.00 and Pro version from $99.00 to $39.00.

UltraRecall is a sophisticated note taking and document/image/webpage database with a tonne of functionality and power.  I recommend it and the above discounts are really substantial.  It has only recently been upgraded to Version 3.  If I didn't already have it I would be jumping up and down for joy.

www.kinook.com or www.ultrarecall.com

Regards,

Jeff

6

Found Deals and Discounts / StudioLine image organisers and graphic web page design Spring specials

« on: March 20, 2007, 04:57 AM »

I think I've decided that I don't particularly like StudioLine image organisers but I should tell forum members that they have some spring specials on their website ATM.

So StudioLine Basic is free, StudioLine Classic is $US30 reduced from $59.  They have a graphic webpage tool which is normally >$200.  But ATM it is $49 if upgrading from StudioLine Calssic and $79 if upgrading from StudioLine Basic.  So try it out and if you like it they are really good prices.

www.studioline.biz

Jeff

7

General Software Discussion / Request for a good slipstreaming procedure

« on: December 26, 2006, 08:01 PM »

I'm wondering if I can get some guidance from members as to a good guide to slipstreaming my original Windows XP with SP2 and susequent Windows XP updates, perhaps using nlite.

It doesn't have to be super simple but preferably reasonably thorough, especially with respect to nlite if included.

Any comments?

Thanks,

Jeff

8

Found Deals and Discounts / ACDSee discount

« on: October 04, 2006, 05:05 AM »

I've noticed in my hunting around there are a few places on the web giving 20% discount coupons on ACDSee.  The one which appears to be working (I didn't actually let the transaction go all the way through) is http://www.secretpri...off-coupon-code.html.  There was one on the WUGNET site but it didn't appear to work and seems to have been withdrawn.

Jeff

9

Image Manager Shootout / ACDSee vs Thumbsplus vs SmartPix vs others - organising method

« on: September 02, 2006, 04:25 PM »

It's funny how I forget I've already posted about some of the questions I've got.

As stated above I've got SmartPix but it really is a little complicated.  However I've been trying ACDSee and Thumbsplus as I might shout myself an image organiser for Father's Day (which it is today in Oz).

I like the idea that one can keep collections of images (or at least their links and thumbnails) in databases.  However ACDSee doesn't seem to operate this way and while I find it better in many other respects I'm not sure I like this single database approach.

Has any one got any comments on this?

Has anyone any experience with CodedColor photo manager?

Thanks for any feedback,

Jeff

10

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Run application on low CPU level?

« on: August 27, 2006, 02:59 PM »

I'm on the scrounge again.  Does anyone know of software (preferably free or low cost) which will run an application when the CPU level and/or disk activity falls below a certain limit or when the keyboard /mouse is idle (but able to set idle time in seconds rather than minutes.

Thanks, Jeff

11

General Software Discussion / Stardock Object Desktop enquiry

« on: August 14, 2006, 11:19 PM »

I'm considering purchasing Stardock's Object Desktop.  I'm wondering if forum members have any comments about it, alternatives to it or parts of it, or access to a discounted price.

Thanks for any advice.

Jeff

12

General Software Discussion / The Best Browser? With Roboform?

« on: July 29, 2006, 04:13 PM »

Thanks to the generosity of superboyac, I am now the proud owner of a new copy of Roboform.  However since I have been using Opera I will have to work out which browser I should use so that I can use Roboform.

I already have Avant on my machine because my wife and daughter use it and I use Avant at work.

I know this is probably repeating other discussion on the forum but I am interested in members ideas as to what to do.  Avant?  Firefox?  Maxthon? IE? Other?

Also BTW if I add a bookmark to say IE does it automatically appear in the IE based browsers?  Firefox?

Thanks for your patience,

Jeff

13

General Software Discussion / Help requested for a Win XP hidden file option problem

« on: June 13, 2006, 07:42 AM »

I'm wondering if I can get some help with this.

I can't get the "show hidden folders and folders" option in Win XP to stay on. When I apply it and reenter the dialog box it has turned itself off again. Does anyone else have any experience with this and what can I do about it.

Thanks for any help.

Jeff

14

General Software Discussion / Privacy solution for external USB drive?

« on: April 19, 2006, 05:29 PM »

I've been looking at a way of protecting about 1.5GB of files on my 40GB USB external drive from being edited by others but to be used at home, work, (where I don't have admin privileges), church (you'd be amazed at what the audiovisual volunteer can do with a Powerpoint presentation for a children's story; like make it unusable) and potentially other computers.  Also for use on my 256k USB memory stick.

I've looked at TrueCrypt and Dekart Private Disk Light as well as some others and haven't been able to quite settle on a solution.

My criteria are

simple to use (although I tend to be turned off by totally no frills interfaces interfaces)
small
portable
not requiring administrator privileges on possible machines I might need to use
when a file is decrypted I don't have to encrypt it again to maintain the protection (actually it doesn't have to encrypt at all just be able to lock/hide a folder but not require installation on target machines ie runs off the drive or memory stick).

Any ideas?

Thanks,  Jeff

15

General Software Discussion / Backing up to protect against operating system or hard drive failure

« on: April 16, 2006, 08:01 AM »

I want to access the thinking of all you gurus here regarding this subject which is somewhat perplexing me.

I have had my current computer for I suppose five years.  I have had Windows XP on it for about a year after it was released so my original disks predate Service Pack 1.

In that time I have had computer problems which required me to reinstall XP about 8 times.  On four of those occasions I have done a "repair" reinstall which has left my registry settings and documents intact.  But on the other occasions the problem have been so severe I have had to do a complete reinstall thus losing access to both documents and installed applications because registry settings are overwritten.

This is becoming more and more problematic as Windows XP needs to be updated with the service packs as well.

I have a backup regime sorted out.  I use Paragon Drive Backup to take images of each of my partitions and Genie Backup Pro to take file backups.  The images are on a second internal hard drive, and the file backups are on external USB drives

However what will happen if my OS or the hard disk fails again.  How will I use these backups to restore the OS as it was with my settings intact.  Or in other words what backup should I make of the system partition, so that if the OS fails and I cannot boot I can restore that partition as it was with as little fuss as possible?

Any comments and advice would be appreciated.

Best wishes (and by the way Happy Easter to Donation Coders),

Jeff

16

General Software Discussion / Boot optimisation software

« on: April 14, 2006, 05:32 PM »

I am thinking about having another go at speeding up my Windows XP boot time following complaints from my wife and daughter that the computer is too slow to start up.  I suspect the main culprits are Quicktime and the Bit Defender virus scan which occurs but can't be sure.

In the past I have tried to use Bootvis to work out what is going on.  However I associate these attempts with at least two fatal computer crashes where I have had to rebuild my software setup from the ground up.  So I am very reluctant to use it again.

Can anyone suggest a good boot time optimiser (or analyser)?

Any help would be appreciated.

Jeff

17

General Software Discussion / Real time disk space monitor required

« on: April 12, 2006, 02:56 PM »

Any one know of any cheap/free programs that will give a realtime display of disk space/free space.  I have been using a trial of Disk Watchman and it is ideal but it is a bit expensive for intermittent use.

Thanks for any help.

Jeff

18

Backup Guide / Question re the verification process speed at the beginning of a Genie Backup

« on: March 24, 2006, 01:49 AM »

I've already posted this on the Genie-Soft forums but someone here might be able to help also.

I have a 20 GB partition which is almost full which I am backing up with Genie. I took a full backup and then take incremental backups every few days. I'm a bit bemused by the amount of time that Genie takes to do the "verification" step at the beginning of the backup process. Given that I only want to incrementally back up a few new and changed files should I not expect Genie to find and copy them easily rather than go through and process every file on the partition again?

Any comments would be welcome. I'm not sure I'm not doing something wrong.

Thanks, Jeff

19

Living Room / Registerfly support issues?

« on: March 18, 2006, 04:34 PM »

Has anyone ever had trouble with Registerfly support? Like getting them to actually read the problem, acknowledging the issue is within their system or process and providing an effective solution.

I'm starting to think computer support personnel are selected for their ability to ignore the customer while pretending to be of service.

I have experienced this across a wide range of IT support scenarios but Registerfly is by far the worst.

Jeff

20

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Program to copy files referenced in a WMP playlist to another location

« on: February 09, 2006, 05:18 AM »

I have not been able to find a program to copy the music files in my daughters Windows Media Player 10 playlist (.wpl file) to another directory while maintaining the original folder structure.  AV Media Copy from www.avsoft.nl does something similar but replaces the original directory structure with a new one based in AlbumArtist\Artist which is not what I want.

I want this so that I can get rid of all the duplicate files she has without deleting the ones in her playlist.  eg she might have three identical copies of the same file and I want to avoid laboriously checking which one is in the playlist so that I can delete the other two.

Anyone interested in programming this for me.

Thanks for listening,

Jeff

21

General Software Discussion / Software for using portable media player

« on: October 21, 2005, 04:32 PM »

I have just purchased a JNC SSF-M9 20GB portable hard disk player which I intend to use for listening to music, podcasts and audiobooks, as well as back up essential computer files.

I was wondering if any forum members had any suggestions for software to manage playlists and synchronise files and playlists between my PC and the JNC. 

Thanks for any help,

Regards,

Jeff

22

Living Room / Test of Donation Coder notifications

« on: September 19, 2005, 01:02 AM »

I have been doing some fiddling with my email addresses and I think my donation coder notification address has been rejecting notifications.  Could someone please post a quick reply to this post so that I can see if the notification comes through.

Regards,

Jeff

23

General Software Discussion / Fractal program

« on: September 06, 2005, 05:30 PM »

A good program for creating computer images

http://www.eclectasy...-Explorer/index.html

Jeff

24

Best Archive Tool / Re: New Review (09/05/05) - Best Archive Tool

« on: September 05, 2005, 04:51 PM »

mouser, other than Zaine who were the main contributors to this review.

Jeff

25

Image Manager Shootout / ACDSee vs ThumbsPlus for large collections

« on: July 16, 2005, 04:57 PM »

In the review it is indicated that ThumbsPlus is a good choice for large graphics collections.  Does anyone have an opinion if it is better than ACDSee for this purpose?

I bought SmartPix Manager some time ago and one of the reasons was it enable viewing of thumbnails acrosss many directories.  Are ACDSee and ThumbsPlus good at this?

Thanks,

Jeff