Topics

1

General Software Discussion / Help needed with bizarre Opera "Classic" keyboard problem

« on: March 27, 2020, 06:52 PM »

I've used Opera Classic's M2 email program since 2001, continuing with it happily even after switching browsers (I primarily use Vivaldi) Several weeks ago I discovered that keyboard input into M2 didn't work. I then found that my keyboard didn't work anywhere in Opera (v12.14; I never upgraded beyond that for reasons I don't recall), although the mouse did. I initially thought the keyboard in my Toshiba Tecra had failed, which would have been reasonable given that the Tecra is a decade old. I soon discovered that my keyboard worked fine in all applications other than Opera "Classic." I could download email into M2 but couldn't reply without cutting and pasting from another program since the keyboard didn't work.

I do daily backups, so I restored from increasingly older backups until I found one where Opera worked properly. I restored my most recent M2 email backup and things worked fine. Even then, however, I was afraid the problem might reoccur since I didn't know what had caused the problem. Sure enough, after a couple of weeks the keyboard in Opera failed again. My attempts to fix this have failed. I've unsuccessfully restored Opera to my latest setup. Even restoring my entire setup from the backup I used to fix Opera now fails, which makes no sense.

Does anyone have an idea of what could be causing this problem? A corrupt file or component of Opera? Why would Opera work fine and then fail later on? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to abandon M2 permanently (unless Vivaldi finally releases its stalled M3 client). For now I'm using web-based email but find it far less convenient than M2.

Thanks.

2

Found Deals and Discounts / CintaNotes on BitsDuJour Fri. 5/23 for $12.50

« on: May 22, 2014, 10:34 AM »

The excellent CintaNotes will be on sale tomorrow for half-price. Also, the full price will soon increase from $25 to $39.

3

Found Deals and Discounts / Free version of O&O Defrag

« on: January 19, 2011, 11:20 AM »

Today O&O Software released a free version of its defragger via Download.com. It is also available from O&O Software.

From the press release:

Functions at a glance
Users of O&O Defrag Free Edition can schedule the time for regular defragmentation. For users working on mobile systems such as Notebooks and Netbooks, the defragmentation is interrupted when the machines are no longer connected to the mains, in order to conserve battery life. The drives are divided into speed zones, which not only reduce program and system start-up times but also prevent fragmentation of program files from the very start.
O&O Defrag Professional Edition.

The commercially available Premium variation for $49.95 (Update $29.95) has a much more advanced range of functions. Users of the full version can choose from a total of eight defragmentation methods, can configure the zone settings individually, as well as various other settings, and can create as many time-schedules for automatic defragmentation as they wish. The optimization of Solid State Drives (SSDs) for any brand of SSD is also only available in the full version.

I realize there are a bunch of defraggers out there; I just wanted to bring this to everybody's attention.

4

General Software Discussion / Is MSGTAG defunct?

« on: January 08, 2010, 03:17 PM »

I'm a longtime, satisfied user of MSGTAG (lets you know when your sent emails have been read), but the service seems to be down along with their website. Does anyone know if MSGTAG has folded? Has anyone had good experience with alternatives such as ReadNotify?

Thanks.

5

General Software Discussion / Want to print artist/album list of ogg/mp3 files

« on: May 06, 2009, 02:41 PM »

One of the ways in which I'm a dinosaur is that I listen almost exclusively to entire albums, not individual songs, and I play ogg/mp3 files almost exclusively on my beloved Rio Karma, not on the PC. Which, if any, of the mp3/ogg player/cataloging programs would enable me to print a list by artist/album without printing song titles?

Thanks.

6

General Software Discussion / Need to convert VOB files to compatible, compact format

« on: March 01, 2009, 07:52 PM »

For a family project I dubbed some Super-8 film to VHS, then copied via HDD/DVD recorder to DVD, and finally converted to .mpg thinking it was a universal format. When my Mac relatives couldn't play the files I discovered that MPEG-2 isn't automatically usable by Mac. I converted the .mpg's to .avi and mp4 but the file size nearly tripled. What format is universal and relatively compact, and any recommendations on freeware? I used VLC for the mp4 conversion.

Normally I research things in depth but I'm pressed for time and don't really care about video aside from this one-time project.

Thanks all.

7

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2007 / Mark Forster seeking beta testers for Autofocus

« on: January 04, 2009, 12:17 PM »

To all terminally disorganized DCers:

Mark Forster (Do It Tomorrow/Get Everything Done; see DC's Forster interview: http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/archives/24) is seeking beta testers for his new Autofocus system. I know little about it except that "One of the things I hope to get out of my new time management system is “autofocus”, that is to say the system itself will automatically focus on what is important and relevant to my life (and how I want it to be) without my having to spend time consciously sifting or selecting." His latest email indicates that it's a paper-based system, which means it's of less interest to me, but perhaps it will suit you and surely it can be modified for PC.

I'm skeptical about all these systems (except for their ability to make money) but will give it a look. The instructions will be revealed tomorrow, Jan. 5th. From Forster:

Please encourage your friends, family, colleagues, clients and anyone else you can think of to join this testing. I need a wide variety of people. It doesn't matter whether they think they are good at time management or hopeless at it. Nor does it matter if they think they won't have time to do it! I am just as interested in why some people don't succeed with it as I am in why others do succeed.

They can subscribe by going to my website markforster.net and entering their email addresses in the Newsletter Sign-up box in the right-hand margin.

8

General Software Discussion / Isn't it ironic?

« on: October 05, 2007, 11:13 PM »

Firewalls have been discussed elsewhere on DC; this is simply for your amusement.

9

The Getting Organized Experiment of 2006 / David Allen web seminar: Best Kept Secrets for Personal and Team Productivity

« on: September 17, 2006, 12:35 PM »

On October 10, 2006 at 10:00am PDT, David Allen and Mindjet will conduct a web seminar called Best Kept Secrets for Personal and Team Productivity. Sign up at http://www.webex.com/web-seminars/view_event/669437426.

10

Living Room / Free Greenlight subscription

« on: March 20, 2006, 01:48 PM »

Greenlight magazine (your guide to earth-friendly living), is offering free one-year digital subscriptions: http://www.greenligh...ag.com/subscribe.php . It's a bit slick for my tastes but has some useful info on green design, etc.

11

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: To-do list with automatic reordering

« on: February 18, 2006, 11:17 PM »

There are zillions of to-do lists but I can't find one that does what I want. Rather than have a limited set of priority levels (High/Med/Low, ABC, etc.), it should have unlimited levels. You should be able to add an item at any level easily (e.g., Ins 6), easily reorder the list (e.g., select item, then M(ove)6 or A(djust)6 to move it to #6 in the list, and inserting or moving an item should automatically adjust other items' priority (inserting a #3 moves the current #3 to #4, #4 to 5, etc.

WordPerfect's old DOS Calendar used to do this, but I don't know of a current program. Other bells & whistles like categories and due dates would be nice of course but aren't necessary for me.

12

Dr.Windows / Sorry, I don't approve

« on: December 20, 2005, 07:40 PM »

If there were no malicious or uninformed people this would be great. Unfortunately there are, and programs like this are dangerous in the wrong hands. I'm sure no paying member of DonationCoder would misuse this, but others will.

This blurs the line between harmless and harmful. A non-computer-savvy person might receive a Dr. Windows message, only to be told it's a joke. The next message might be malicious and the user might take the wrong action.

I know, I know, it's only silly fun. But perhaps DonationCoders don't think about the majority of computer users. I teach computing skills to a group of senior citizens, and they would be terrified by even the penguin joke. If little Joey decided to pull a prank on Gramps, who knows?

13

Best Dialog Extender / PowerDesk Pro's Dialog Helper

« on: November 30, 2005, 10:48 AM »

I just wanted to alert members to the Dialog Helper that's included with PowerDesk Pro (now from Vcom/Avanquest; formerly OnTrack; formerly Mijenix). To be honest, I don't normally use it, but I consider PowerDesk Pro (a Windows Explorer replacement) ABSOLUTELY indispensable and therefore consider Dialog Helper free. Also, a version of PowerDesk is included with Vcom/Avanquest's Fix-It Utilities 6 and SystemSuite, both useful programs (however, I'm not certain Dialog Helper is included with these versions of PowerDesk; check with Vcom).

At any rate, DH adds a few buttons to the title bar. It consists of a Folder Tracker, File Tracker, and File Viewer; one or all can be installed.   I believe it doesn't meet many of mouser's criteria, but it does offer an unobtrusive interface, recent files and folders, apps to ignore, and more. It might just meet your needs, and if you can use PowerDesk or one of the other utilities, provide a great value.

14

ProcessTamer / Discrepancy between GUI and tray

« on: April 02, 2005, 01:33 PM »

I'm confused by an apparent disconnect between what's going on among the tray app, the GUI, The Windows Task Mgr, and a utility called FreeMeter. For example, for the last several minutes the tray has said winlogon.exe was being tamed, but the GUI said it was using 0/0 CPU. Also, FreeMeter usually shows a far higher CPU rate than the percentages in GUI. FreeMeter sometimes is consistently at 100% but the GUI shows very low CPU utilization  and nothing is tamed even after a long wait. This is even after adjusting the slider control almost halfway.

What accounts for the wide discrepancy? In the end what I care about most is whether my system is bogged down, but this is puzzling.

I'm using v2b6; might b8 be different?

15

ProcessTamer / Process Tamer won't work

« on: March 31, 2005, 12:26 PM »

This is precisely the type of program I've been seeking, but it doesn't seem to work on my W2K system. As I write, my CPU utilization has been pegged at ~100% due to a Panda antivirus scan, but PT apparently hasn't acted (it IS enabled). I have yet to get it to act in a few days of testing. Any suggestions? Thanks.