Messages

601

General Software Discussion / Re: The ultimate piece of retro-computing

« on: February 16, 2009, 08:53 AM »

The slide rule pictured shows 62, not 61, which is correct within the precision limitations and very close to the correct answer (62.1). It appears that whoever read the answer mistook the fractional markings between 6 and 7 for 10ths (.1), when they are actually 5ths (.2).

The Graphoplex slide rule I used in physics classes in France in the 1960's (and which I still have, although I haven't used it in decades) had a magnification attachment that allowed you to interpolate an extra digit of precision, as well as scales for squares, cubes, natural logs, trigonometric functions and more.

Slide rules have one advantage over electronic calculators in that they show a range of answers at once, which makes them much faster for quick planning purposes. The inexpensive quick calculators often given out as promotions by banks and financial planners, or at trade shows, are just special purpose slide rules.

602

Living Room / Re: New Ipod/ cleaning mp3s

« on: February 08, 2009, 12:31 PM »

You can rip your CDs with another program and insert the metadata (including album covers), then import the MP3 files into iTunes. My favorite program for ripping and converting is Easy CD-DA Extractor from Poikosoft (http://www.poikosoft.com/ - 25 euros). If you are concerned about the quality of the MP3 files, Easy CD-DA or the free EAC ripper are both superior to iTunes anyway.

603

Living Room / Re: Crash course in MUSIC: mp3/meta_Data/compilations/download_sites

« on: February 08, 2009, 12:17 PM »

Regardless of the format you download, if you want to play your compilation in most CD players (that is, not computer CD drives or MP3 players) you will need to burn audio CDs in CD-Digital Audio format (CD-DA).

MP3 (or Apple's AAC equivalent) files are great for listening from appropriate devices but they are not as good for burning CDs. MP3 is a lossy format which tries to adapt to the way the human ear hears sounds when compressing music, but you make the perceived sound worse when converting from a lossy format to CD audio because the information restored is not identical to what was removed originally.

What this means is that for archival purposes and for burning CDs you should use a lossless format such as flac, which is smaller than uncompressed WAVE files and allows you to attach metadata as tags.  Of course, if your original source is MP3, you are stuck with what you've got and won't be able to get any better quality from it anyhow.

There are a wide variety of free programs out there that will let you rip and burn CDs and convert between different audio formats, but for nearly all of this kind of thing, I use Easy CD-DA Extractor from Poikosoft  (http://www.poikosoft.com/ - 25 euros) which puts all the tools you need in one extremely convenient package and does it all as well as the best of the individual programs.

604

Living Room / Re: Scrotumgate

« on: February 02, 2009, 04:46 PM »

He is also credited with:

Mary had a little watch
She swallowed it one day
She took a box of Beecham's Pills
To pass the time away.

(in response to someone asking him whether he was embarrassed by the advertising jingles for Beecham's pills)

605

Living Room / Re: Drive Dock: Turn bare drives into floppies

« on: February 02, 2009, 04:36 PM »

This is another approach which may be less elegant but is both cheaper and more flexible for occasional use:

http://www.byteccusa...er/BT-300/BT-300.htm

I have one of these and find it very useful because it works with any kind of drive and is small enough to keep in my "fixit" toolkit. Newegg sells the SATA/IDE version for $25 and an IDE only version for $16.

606

General Software Discussion / Re: XP SP3 fresh install work with SP2 key?

« on: January 30, 2009, 04:50 PM »

What XP SP3 iso from Microsoft are you talking about?  The only one that I know of is the Service Pack and that only updates an existing installation to SP3. It should update any earlier version of XP, but unless you have an actual XP installation CD or a system recovery CD to reinstall the OS from, you won't have anything to update.

I don't believe that Microsoft makes iso images of XP installation discs available online except through an MSDN subscription for development purposes, and that doesn't sound like what you are talking about.

607

Living Room / Re: Bad smells ... UPS recommendations ?

« on: January 29, 2009, 09:36 PM »

I have lousy power - doesn't go out that often, but subject to fluctuations - and two UPSs on 24/7 for two different systems, as well as a Tripp Lite voltage conditioner for laser printer and some peripherals. A Google search for AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulator) or voltage conditioner  should come up with plenty of options.

The less expensive UPS boxes are standby and kick in when the power goes below a threshold, but don't do anything to condition the power quality and just pass voltage variations through to the devices plugged into them. That's not usually a problem for modern PC power supplies, but it can be for some devices.

In my case, one UPS is an APC 650VA box and the other a Best Power line-interactive UPS. They both have worked well for about 15 years, although the batteries need replacement every 5 years or so. For dirty power the Best unit is better because it puts out a clean constant voltage and also provides diagnostics on the input line quality. Best Power was bought by Eaton a few years ago and incorporated into the Eaton Powerware line, which is available in localized versions in many countries.

608

General Software Discussion / Re: Awesome article re: organization and notetaking

« on: January 23, 2009, 09:31 PM »

FWIW, the Chandler Project was started by Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus and author of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet.  The original concept came from Lotus Agenda, an organizer that nobody ever could figure out how to use, back in the DOS days, and which Kapor had had a hand in developing. Kapor dissassociated himself from the Chandler Project a year ago (and stopped funding it). He is also responsible for the Foxmarks synchronizer for Firefox and is on the board of the Mozilla Foundation, among other things.

I was once interested in the idea of Chandler, but as it grew more complex, it also got more diffuse, eventually devolving into a nebulous concept that had no chance of turning into a usable product.  A fine example of how not to create software.

609

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows editors - do they have to be so bad?

« on: January 16, 2009, 10:46 PM »

Word processors and most text editors today work on a stream buffer principle - a single stream of text is interpreted and reformatted into lines on-screen. But there is another approach with roots in the IBM mainframe world: line-oriented editors in which each line of text is a separate record in a linked list. Line-oriented editors have certain limitations which make them unsuitable for some purposes (e.g., searching for multiline patterns) but they have many other benefits.

The best line-oriented editor for PCs is probably Kedit for Windows, an emulation of IBM's XEDIT mainframe editing environment. It's not likely to be anyone's only editor, but it provides capabilities unmatched by any other that I know of. One thing that I love about KfW is the selective editing: You can specify a target pattern and view only those lines that contain that pattern; you can then edit them as a block or toggle back and forth instantly between full and restricted views. You can also restrict edits to within vertical columns or inside rectangular blocks, overlay and fill blocks, etc.  Persistent blocks are independent of selected text so you can use both at the same time. KfWt operates entirely in RAM and is exceptionally fast.

KfW has all the capabilities asked for by the OP, although for the ability to use filters as external user tools, you would have to learn to use REXX, which is probably the least intuitive scripting language ever devised.

The Mansfield Software Group, which publishes Kedit, had planned to cease operations last year, but there apparently is still enough demand for it that they have decided to continue selling and supporting it through 2009.  KfW costs $129. You can get a demo version from their web site which is fully functional but will only save the first 75 lines of a file.

610

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« on: January 13, 2009, 10:08 PM »

Seagate replaced their CEO yesterday.  Wonder if it had anything to do with the reliability rumors. FWIW, I've had better luck with Seagate than WD or Hitachi over the years, but the warranty change from 5 to 3 yrs worries me because it indicates a new lack of confidence in the quality of the product.

611

General Software Discussion / Re: "XPLinux" Running Windows XP and Kubuntu on one joint desktop

« on: December 10, 2008, 10:29 PM »

FWIW, the latest version of VMware Workstation is 6.5 and it provides a nice "Unity" mode. which allows applications in a guest VM to appear as if running on the host system. Since Unity mode and multiple VMs are also supported in VM Player 6.5, you can create multiple VMs on one system with Workstation installed and run them on other systems with just the Player installed, eliminating the need for multiple Workstation licenses.

My experience is that the more RAM the better with WS. I run on a 3Ghz P4 with 3GB RAM and XP Pro SP2 and while it takes WS over a minute to start up, once it is running, there is very little degradation in performance and VMs start up quickly. Having plenty of RAM allows you to reserve a good amount for your VMs to run in and and disallow swapping on the host system. VMs can also be kept running and accessed after closing WS on the host, although I haven't used that feature myself.

For all the new goodies in WS 6.5, see: https://www.vmware.c...leasenotes_ws65.html

612

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« on: December 02, 2008, 11:22 PM »

askSam is a freeform database, not DTS software (which means that it imports text into a database file rather than indexing it in place)  but it provides much more powerful search capabilities than DTS software can. In this respect it is more of a researcher's tool than a file finder, which makes it more suitable for my purposes. It also imports from a wide variety of file formats and is particularly good at creating searchable email archives from email programs, which seems to be the main target promoted by most DTS software.

Unfortunately, it is also quite expensive -- the professional editon, which includes indexing, normally costs $395, but it is now on sale until December 12 for $99.95. I have posted the details and link in the software deals section.

613

Found Deals and Discounts / askSam Pro 75% off until 12/12/08

« on: December 02, 2008, 09:55 PM »

askSam is having one of their year-end special sales until December 12, 2008

askSam 7 Standard: $69.95 (reg. $149.95)
askSam 7 Professional: $99.95 (reg. $395.95)
askSam 7 Web Publisher: $750 (reg. $1495.00)
Surfsaver 6.1: $9.95 (reg. $19.95)

https://www.asksam.c...og.asp?req=holiday08

You can also buy a 5-user network version until 12/5/2008 at $995.00 (reg. $1995.00)

614

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you manage your email?

« on: September 12, 2008, 02:32 PM »

They've been taking about the Paperless Office of the Future since the early 1970's.

Personally, I think that's about as likely as a Paperless Bathroom. 

-40hz (September 11, 2008, 09:49 PM)

That joke takes me back, if not to the early 1970's, at least to 1981, when I heard a DEC engineer use it in a speech at a CP/M-86 conference. I've been using it ever since.

615

General Software Discussion / Re: IDEA: CD-RW/DVD-RW emulated drive?

« on: June 12, 2008, 02:50 PM »

I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean by a CD/DVVD writer emulator.

Nero allows you to write a a CD or DVD image to your hard disk.  In version 7, which is what I use, you just select Image Recorder as the device to write to.

But a much easier option is UltraISO (http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/) which costs $29.95 and allows you to create and edit CD and DVD ISO images. You can drag files and drectories to and from ISO images or remove them altogether, create ISO images from or burn them to physical discs, create bootable discs, etc.  It includes a basic CD drive emulator, but the images it creates can be mounted with all such programs that I know of.

616

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: January 15, 2008, 04:35 PM »

Another vote for eWallet. Very flexible, although it doesn't fill forms, but that's fine, since I use a variety of browsers (Opera, Firefox, Seamonkey...) and they all do things differently.

The main thing for me is that it is extremely secure, unlike the browser password managers, and I can use it on both Palm and Windows. Stuff that I don't care about much, I leave in the browser's manager. Anything that could cost me $$ if it escaped, I keep in eWallet only.

eWallet is also useful for keeping other kinds of information than just passwords.

617

Found Deals and Discounts / askSam and SurfSaver for 50% or more off (ends Jan 20 2008)

« on: January 15, 2008, 04:16 PM »

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     - askSam Standard - $69.95 (reg. $149.95)   **Over 50% 0ff
     
     - askSam Professional - $99.95 (reg. $395.00)  **Save $295
     
     - SurfSaver - $9.95 (reg. $19.95)             **Half Price
 
askSam Professional has all the features of askSam, plus
a special indexing component that allows you to search askSam
databases with hundreds of megabytes and millions of documents
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SurfSaver is a web browser add-on that allows you to save and
organize web pages into searchable folders.
 
Order on-line at our SECURE order form:
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