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Messages - michaelkenward [ switch to compact view ]

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26
General Software Discussion / Re: What's your preferred File Manager
« on: February 01, 2014, 09:50 AM »
It's one of the most powerful programs you will ever use, but it can also be one of the most complicated you'll ever use as well. Those who master its secrets will never fear a file management task ever again, but the journey can be a difficult one.

This seems to go with the territory. Powerful software equals complicated.

When I moved from Power Desk, when it became abandonware, I switched to Directory Opus, the most used file manager here, after Explorer. Some years on, the more I use it the less I know.

I suspect that the best guide to these packages is the support that you can get, and the manuals they offer. Directory Opus comes with a manual written by the experts for the experts. So it is not newcomer friendly. But it does have a reactive support forum that does not poor scorn on dumb questions.

Were I seeking a file manager, I would look at support, and the price of course, including frequency and cost of updates, rather than the power under the hood. My guess is that they all steal from one another on the front. If one does something neat, the others will follow.




27
ClipMate is unarguably an amazing program -- only reason I even look at other things is the size and importability of CM.  It goes so far beyond the call of duty for a clipboard extender, it would probably be better referred to as a data management solution with Clip Board monitoring support ;)

ClipMate also seems to be on its last legs. No updates in quite some time. The Forum is dead – probably to fend off complaints about its lack of development. The developer has gone to earth.

Which is why I am looking for an alternative.  If Clipboard Help+Spell can handle the bits that I use, then I am on board.

But how do I transfer all those bits and pieces from ClipMate? Could take time.

28
Another UK user here, with mostly the same complaints. Crap database, especially for classical music, and not even a user friendly interface.

But my biggest beef is the way in which they introduced the new model. I paid for an upgrade a couple of months back, I am supposed to have access to the new model for six months. But apart from the fact that they didn't warn me that within months of one new version they would they would move the goalposts a few miles, they have hidden the access to this new versions so well that I can't find it, even after I was told where to look. A simple screen grab with an arrow to the button I am supposed to see would help.

There was also this puzzling invitation – almost an order – to sign up for some on-line service thingy. There was no clue as to what this was about, certainly no explanation that it was a prelude to imposing a new business model on the world. Maybe there is a confusion with my access because, not knowing what the heck was going on, I used a different email address from the one I use to make purchases.

Worse than this is the contempt with which they seem to hold customers. It really isn't a good idea to insult people who have paid for your product and then come along and ask simple questions. (Not me, other people.)

If a customer doesn't understand something, don't blame them, ask yourself if you might just have got things wrong and explained stuff poorly.

I am now looking for an alternative, but I need one that can import my large database of recordings, not something that has ever been easy with Collectorz software.

29
I'm now using Agent Ransack and it does indeed find text buried deep within documents - and it does it rather fast, too.
Agent Ransack is another non-indexed search tool.

software that has to create an index, robbing a computer of resources by having a service running in the background that often at inconvenient times start to do its indexing.

That was much more valid as a criticism in the days of slow PCs with limited memory and small hard drives. But that world is long gone for most of us.

The thought of running individual searches when I want to find something in the 174,071 PDF files on my PC is just too horrible to contemplate. I barely notice any effect of my indexing software (X1) on this 64-bit PC with 8GB of memory and a 256-GB solid state drive. (The data is on a regular HDD.)

Of course, using on-the-fly searching means that when you do want to find something, all that disk thrashing and chasing all over the place will drain the PC's resources, far more so than the limited disk activity that is involved in indexed searches.

With resources no longer a real issue for anyone with a half decent PC, the choice between indexed and non-indexed searching depends on what you want to do. For example, non-indexed searchers can't work with most email software, especially something like Outlook. So you either have to go for indexed or use the software itself. Going for indexed means that the same software can look at email and files at the same time. I can even tell X1 to look for things in in email and files at the same time.






30
The title of this now very old poll may be misleading, but if you look at the options you will see that it is about desktop "index and search software". In other words software that maintains a database of your data and uses that when you want to find something.

Ultra FileSearch "does not use background Indexing". It finds things "on the fly". It is not, therefore, comparable with the programs in the poll. It is a different beast.

Anyone whose task is to "find documents based on specific text contained in them and by selecting the drive and specifying the text" will almost certainly find that index and search software, any index and search software, will be quicker and more efficient than on-the-fly search and find software.

31
Living Room / Re: Internet Sales Tax Passed
« on: May 19, 2013, 11:59 AM »
I hate sales tax not because of taxes per se, but because I personally think it's idiotic that no-one has the fecking common decency to tell me how much a thingamabob is after taxes until it's already rung up and I've committed to purchasing the item.

This always puzzles Europeans, among others. Here all prices include tax. You pay what is on the tag.




32
Michael

Thanks v much for the Google Group link - I found many invaluable tips there esp by Joe Winograd


Joe is seriously knowledgeable about things PaperPort and Nuance PDF.

In all fairness, I should also have mentioned the recently revived Nuance Forums. But this self-support forum has fewer members than the PaperPort Google Group. And despite residing on the company's server, the Nuance forum has next to no obvious input from the technical people at Nuance.

One good bit about the Nuance forum is the ability to search the company's KnowledgeBase and the forum simultaneously.

33
In most cases I haven't found any improvements but quite the opposite. Keeping up that should completely ruin every program they offer. IMO Dragon Naturally Speaking has no improved since they re-branded it from Scansoft.

As much as I understand of this, it has, indeed, been the pattern for Nuance software over the years. However, the latest incarnation of DNS does seem to have a few improvements worth having. In particular, it now looks at the processing power of the PC it sits on and moves up a gear if it finds plenty of processing power. I have certainly noticed a difference over DNS 11.5.

As to the other packages, too often the "updates" merely squelch bugs that should have been fixed in updates and patches. Some also introduce instabilities. (We chew over this endlessly on the PaperPort Google Group, where Nuance's victims shelter for comfort and self support.) But there is usually some tangible improvement in there – often minor, I agree – that really does add something. For example, the latest version of PaperPort introduces new desktop icons that tell you much more about the underlying PDF file. If it contains a text overlay, for example.

The version before that added native OCR, eliminating the need for a third party OCR package, such as OmniPage, to create searchable PDF files. Again, an improvement worth the upgrade price for many users.

Nuance has also taken to throwing cloud storage into new versions of its software. But reflecting the disparate origins of the software, it uses different cloud services with different software, and does not seem to have thought of integrating them. So PaperPort has PaperPort Anywhere, a version of OfficeDrop – but one that will not cohabit with OfficeDrop – while PDF Converter Professional 8 uses Gladinet.

Many people do not need "cloud". But its inclusion in PaperPort has convinced me that it is a useful tool in these increasingly mobile days. I have PaperPort Anywhere and other clouds connecting my android devices, my laptop and PCs.

One "bug" that seems to have gone from PDF Converter Professional 8 is the insane activation regime that kicked in if you managed to boot your PC with a different array of USB drives connected. Nuance has always been more paranoid about activation than anyone else, but it had become so bad that it was driving away potential customers (Check the Amazon reviews for PDFC 7.) But you should not have to buy another version to mend their defects.

Finally, to repeat, the FLEXnet thing, which describes itself as a "Software Manager", is not adware as any reasonable person would recognise it. The only "ads" you will get are occasional notifications, probably every year or so, of new versions of your Nuance products, along with genuine update alerts for your existing software. As Nuance rarely puts out updates, and is painfully slow at fixing known bugs, and upgrades are biennial rather than annual, it is usually adequate to simply disable it using msconfig in startup and then running it manually from time to time.

34
Flexnet is there to monitor for updates to Nuance software. It also feeds ad junk from Nuance. But it is not "adware" that churns out all sorts of guff. It merely tells you about new versions of Nuance software.

It has nothing to do with free/paid for versions of Nuance software. You get it with paid for software.

You can disable the software in startup using msconfig.

While this stuff can be annoying, and is a bad way of informing users about software updates, it is hardly a crime against humanity.

Yet another case of paranoia runs deep.

If you really want to see unacceptable behaviour, install anything from NCH software. This stomps all over your registry and imposes file associates with just about anything and everything, resulting in all manner of popups and invitations to install, and buy, yet more NCH software.

35
Finished Programs / Re: DONE: automated mp3 rip from video clip
« on: May 06, 2011, 11:54 AM »
Nice little gadget.

I have had a video file sitting on my desk for months, waiting for me to get round to extracting the sound file. Too next to no time to deal with it.

Thanks.


36
General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10
« on: May 04, 2011, 10:48 AM »
Out of curiosity, are you the same Michael Kenward as the Michael Kenward OBE found here and here?
Could be.

37
General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10
« on: May 04, 2011, 10:46 AM »
(i paid €40 - there's 19% vat also included in that price - I dont know if that's charged for all countries).
No VAT in the UK if bought direct from Oz.


38
General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10
« on: May 04, 2011, 03:22 AM »
Pity the extra money doesn't reach GP Software.
-michaelkenward (May 03, 2011, 04:31 PM)

Where does it go?
Probably into the pockets of a wunch of bankers.

It is down to the change in exchange rates.

GP Software just charged me AUS$71 for a pair of licences. That comes in at around £41. (Still good value for three PCs.)

Back when I bought my licence, that would probably have been nearer £30.


39
General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10
« on: May 03, 2011, 04:47 PM »
But the times they are a changing - at least they're not charging per year.
Mailwasher tried that and the sky fell in.

Reinstated a lifetime price.

But that was for an update that was mostly cosmetic.

40
General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10
« on: May 03, 2011, 04:31 PM »
I personally find this "limited time" thing offensive - instead of making me want to buy it before the time runs out it makes me want to move to another file manager.
Ever been to a supermarket? Or do your servants do that for you?

It may well be that owners of older versions will continue to get some lesser discount.

The choice is yours.

The real tragedy is that Australia was not in thrall to bankers, and has an economy that did not implode because Americans took out loans to buy houses that they could never afford to repay. So the Australia exhange rate is in the stratosphere, an Upus costs us foreigners more.

Then again, the rest of the planet has had to put up with rapacious American software houses that charge everyone else much more for software than they ask of locals. Nice to see this biting back the other way for a change. Pity the extra money doesn't reach GP Software.

41
General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10
« on: May 03, 2011, 04:20 PM »
Let me guess: They still can't see a reason to provide lifetime updates?
Yes. Bummer.

I paid $50 for Windows 3.1 sometime back in the 19th century. It is outrageous that Bill Gates asks me to pay again every time he breathes on Windows.

Why did he ask me to pay for 98, ME, XP, Vista, Win 7? He probably did the upgrades while eating lunch at McDonalds.

42
General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10
« on: May 03, 2011, 04:16 PM »
I just purchased the upgrade, and after registering the program, the License Manager states "This certificate is valid for installation on a single computer (plus one personal laptop for HOME/SOHO users only)."

I don't know if past versions allowed installation on a laptop with a normal license, but I don't recall ever seeing that.
Your memory is deficient. Nothing has changed on that front.

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