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Messages - johnk [ switch to compact view ]

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26
CintaNotes due on BDJ soon at 50% discount...

27
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: RightNote PRO 50% off
« on: February 23, 2012, 12:41 PM »
I have a big catch-all note like that in KeyNote. Not just numbers and URLs, but some useful command-line switches for TotalCommander, the serial number of my WD drive in case I need it replaced, symbol of the battery model I need for my video camera, an address for a local animal shelter, someone's birthday... and wait, wasn't I suppose to organize stuff?

I don't know what to do with bits like that.

Many of us have battled, and lost, to find a single piece of software to manage our information. I gave up some time ago.

I too like RightNote, and plan to use it from now on as my main program for "organised" information.

But the other stuff? Here's what I do. I use not one but two clipboard capture programs.

One of them, your excellent Ethervane Echo, Tranglos, runs permanently in the background, in "inmemorydatabase mode", i.e. it will clean the database very time I reboot. Just recording information I might need for that session only.

The second program is Clipcache Pro. The auto capture is switched off most of the time. Then when I come across a snippet I know I might want sometime (e.g. a phone number), I switch on Clipcache's capture mode with a keyboard shortcut, then capture the number, and then immediately toggle Clipcache's capture mode.

Why go to this trouble? Because Clipcache is for information that I know I won't organise or manage. It's one big database of useful snippets. The important thing is to give the snippet a good title. So if the phone number is for the South-Eastern Electricity Company, the title should be 'South-Eastern Electricity Company phone number'.

I also use Clipcache for things like software registration numbers, recipes, software reviews, useful technical how-tos, film reviews, information on various hobbies...

I've been using Clipcache for several years now. Goodness knows how many snippets are in there. The database (SQLite) is about 50MB. I can find anything in seconds using search. It's one of the first programs I install on any machine. Invaluable.

And it means the serious information management programs are kept just for data that really needs organising.

28
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Take Command (jpsoftware) $50
« on: February 23, 2012, 07:20 AM »

29
Living Room / Re: Losing my e-Book religion
« on: February 22, 2012, 06:32 PM »
Although I originally bought a Kindle mainly to read my own documents while on the move, I have started to buy ebooks recently (mainly the cheap 99p offers). I find the service excellent and reliable. For those concerned about Amazon unilaterally wiping their ebook collection, it is always an option to use a program such as Calibre to strip DRM from the Kindle files (i.e. creating a MOBI copy of the Kindle books), so that you always have a usable copy of your Kindle books if the worst happens. Against the T&C, I'm sure, but as the first rule of copyright enforcement is that the prosecutor has to demonstrate "economic harm" to the copyright holder (i.e. loss of a sale), you are on safe legal ground pretty much anywhere in the world.

30
Found Deals and Discounts / Take Command (jpsoftware) $50
« on: February 20, 2012, 08:02 AM »
Command prompt toolkit sometimes discussed here, "coming soon" at BDJ.

31
Living Room / Re: At last, KeyNote done better :)
« on: February 18, 2012, 07:36 PM »
Since I last tested RightNote, they've added full web page capture in addition to the "Clipper" (snippet) option. Based on brief tests, both appear to "just work", with the web page capture making a faithful capture of fairly complex web pages. Which puts RightNote in competition with all the other apps fighting for the "information dump" market (Ultra Recall/TreeProjects/MyBase/EverNote/Surfulater/etc).

32
Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?
« on: December 15, 2011, 08:10 AM »
Yes, I'm still happy with mine. Re the hard drives: As I mentioned above I have six drives in mine. I think eleven might be pushing it,  from an air flow point of view. I'd call a halt at eight: four drives in the standard 3.5 bays, and four in the 2.5 caddy in the optical drive slot. Of course, if you don't need the flexibility of having eight disks (for RAID/backup/whatever), it would surely be cheaper to use a big 3.5 drive in the optical slot rather than the four 2.5 inchers. That's what I do, plus I sneak a 2.5 inch drive in behind the optical slot, with little impact on air flow.

33
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Zentimo at GAOTD (Dec 12, 2011)
« on: December 15, 2011, 07:25 AM »
Zentimo is continuing the giveaway on its web site until Dec 21 (free copy of program, not 40% off).


34
The all-time best improvement for me came not from the OS per se but from using an SSD as my boot drive.
-cranioscopical (December 14, 2011, 04:10 PM)

+1.

I also agree that Win7 is both a much better OS than XP and also a more frustrating OS than XP. I have spent a fair amount of time trying to solve network/permission glitches on my Win7 machine. But Microsoft got it right with Win7, and x64 is worth it unless you have specific needs for x32.

As a side note, I also recently set up a Windows Home Server (WHS 2011 - x64 only) machine on my home network, and I am very impressed by the OS (essentially Server 2008 R2) and the consumer UI for the WHS features. Microsoft can do things well. And WHS now sells in the UK for about £35, which is a bargain for what WHS can do. You don't often get to say that about MS products.

But back on topic, yes, moving the OS to an SSD created by far the biggest improvement to my everyday computing experience.

35
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 24-Hours Giveaway - DiskBoss Pro
« on: December 12, 2011, 07:55 AM »
Thanks for taking the time to respond and explain.

36
Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 24-Hours Giveaway - DiskBoss Pro
« on: December 11, 2011, 05:36 PM »
A belated thank you for the giveaway. Much appreciated. One comment, if I may, on the pricing model for your products.

We all have different needs, and the one feature for me that I would like from the ultimate edition is the Real-Time Disk Change Monitor. Now I'm happy to pay more for it and I note that you sell it as a separate product (DiskPulse) for $25. Fair enough, I suppose, except it would be more desirable to have it built into Diskboss, but the ultimate edition is priced for business users.

And while I completely agree that features such as the SQL server are business-oriented and should be priced as such, I think command-line access to features is another thing. Many of the "home users" who visit this site are the kind of people who like using the command line if possible. Likewise, is "running as a service" really a corporate feature? So many of us run home servers now.

I think there's room for another "home user" premium version of Diskboss. For non-commercial use, pitched at say $50 (per home user, not per machine), that incorporates all the geeky Diskboss features that users of this site appreciate, without the SQL trimmings. Whether it makes business sense to you is another thing.

37
Might not suit your purposes, but I use a combination of Notezilla and Rainlendar for my desktop notes/todos/reminders.

I find Rainlendar particularly helpful. It has a desktop display mode which I use to show my todo list and calendar on the desktop, and it also offers reminders and syncs with Google Calendar/Tasks.

38
Living Room / Re: Anyone got an iPad and like it?
« on: November 01, 2011, 08:34 AM »
I bought my wife an iPad recently. Overnight, her use of her laptop dropped by more than 50%. For the things she uses a computer for (email, web browsing, Facebook), the tablet is just as good, and more comfortable to use when slumped on a chair. And as other have mentioned, instant on/off is a huge advantage. Huge.

The pattern of use I describe above covers much of the computer-using population. That's why iPads are popular.

Me? I use a HP Touchpad, which IMHO is a better device than the iPad (a better OS). And I use that a lot too. In the evening, for casual web browsing in my favourite armchair. I also have a 7-inch Galaxy Tab (with 3G) for portable outdoor use. And a Kindle, which is a fabulous device. And I use a laptop. And a desktop. Each has its place. Each brings benefits to my life. It's not either/or.

39
Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?
« on: November 01, 2011, 08:13 AM »
I recently built a NAS and ended up using a HP Microserver. Very popular in the UK recently because HP have been running a £100 cashback deal, so the Microserver ends up costing you about £130.

It's small and well-built, officially takes four 3.5" disks but I have installed 5 3.5" plus a fast 2.5" disk as my OS disk. It sips power (with 6 disks, mine idles at 45w).

I used Windows Home Server as an OS (currently about £40), so for £170 plus disks I have a very flexible box. As well as storage it runs programs that need to run 24/7 (my Squeezebox server, for example). One of my best buys recently.

40
Since the whole system is based on some form of magic (dividends, futures, forecasts) why would this be any different?

Because this time, there is no way out. They can't fudge it. The Euro will break up, either in a controlled way, or an implosion. Either way, the effect on the world will be pretty horrible. Not just the economic side of things, which will be bad for most countries and devastating for others, but serious social unrest is very likely, and historically, that leads to growing popularity for extreme political movements, armed conflict...

This isn't fantasy. The only reason the Euro hasn't broken up yet is that Germany is holding it together. And the only reason Germany is holding it together is that Merkel is clever enough to realise that, whatever way the cards fall, Germany is screwed. So she's putting off the inevitable for as long as possible.

41
Good fun, thanks for the link. I've been boring everyone I know, telling them that the Euro disaster is potentially the greatest crisis since the second world war. Everyone, understandably, ignores me and continues drinking their beer. I'm an optimist by nature, but the world is sleepwalking into an economic earthquake. Very, very scary...

42
N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Ethervane Echo
« on: October 04, 2011, 07:05 AM »
CHANGED: Restriction on MaxLinesPerItem now raised to 1000 (requested by Johnk)

Thank you. Very few new pieces of software enter my toolkit these days, but Echo filled a gap. I use Clipcache Pro as my long-term clipboard storage (it's my database for all clips/snippets I want to keep), but I needed a short-term clipboard and Echo's database-in-memory mode is perfect.

43
N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Ethervane Echo
« on: September 27, 2011, 08:02 PM »
I'll remove this restriction in the next release.

Thank you.

44
N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Ethervane Echo
« on: September 27, 2011, 05:23 PM »
Thanks, MaxLinesPerItem was what I was looking for. But I can't set it higher than 10?

45
N.A.N.Y. 2012 / Re: NANY 2012 Pledge & Early Beta: Ethervane Echo
« on: September 27, 2011, 10:51 AM »
Congrats, Tranglos, on a fine app. It has already become my "session clipboard" (I use the "database in memory" mode).

One thing I'm unclear about -- no matter how much I increase MaxDispTextSize, the display of each item is limited to 5 lines, even if FixedItemHeight is false. To view more of the item I need to adjust the width of the window. Even then I never seem to see the full item, unless I use the editor. Is there another setting I need to adjust?

46
Would ResophNotes be suitable? Syncs with SimpleNote, plain text, supports Markdown for HTML formatting. Highlights hits as you type. Option to store .txt files

47
Site/Forum Features / Tapatalk
« on: September 22, 2011, 12:36 PM »
I've just started using the Communities app on WebOS for accessing web forums (which uses the same technology as Tapatalk on iOS/Android/WP7/Blackberry) and noticed that DC isn't on the list of forums that can be accessed.

I searched this forum and only found one mention of Tapatalk, which is surprising as it seems to be popular, certainly in the iOS and Android worlds.

The blurb for Communities says that supporting Tapatalk is "as easy as copying a folder, and free". So I wonder if I could request that Mouser look into the possibility of allowing Tapatalk access?

48
I've been using PE since the last deal. Before that I was using AHK.

PE is easier and faster, if it can do what you need to do. Last week I came across the first situation where PE couldn't deliver -- I was trying to create a shortcut to restore a program hidden in the system tray. PE can't do this, AHK can.

In the end, it's ease of use (PE) against flexibility (AHK). Overall, I'm still happy I bought PE.

As I mentioned earlier, I bought two PE licences and converted them to network licences -- this allows me to run the PE server on my Windows Home Server box, and my laptop and desktop can share the same PE file, which is a nice feature.

49
I think it's a bit of a stretch to suggest that InfoQube is an alternative to simple flat-file list management programs such as Listpro.

I have tried a few times to become familiar with IQ, and while I admire its power, I don't think even IQ's greatest fan would describe it as simple and intuitive in the same manner as ListPro.

I think ListPro is the best of the simple list programs, and like xtabber, I've only considered moving away from it because they show no interest in providing an Android version.

Haven't found anything yet. Checkmark now has a desktop version in beta, so maybe worth keeping an eye on.

50
Living Room / Re: BoingBoing Update on Bitcoin Alternatives
« on: July 30, 2011, 08:35 AM »
Before the world became a frighteningly complex place, money was simple. It's a commodity, like anything else. The conceit, the deal, if you like, is that we all accept that money can be exchanged for any other commodity.

So if the world only contained three bananas, three fish and three coins, and we all accepted these were of equal value, then you have a starting point. But if you make three more coins, then you need two coins to buy a fish. Because you can create infinite amounts of money, but other resources are limited. Then derivatives came along...

For a slightly more sensible, more complex, but excellent "Economics 101", which predicted and describes what's happened to the world economy in the last few years (and is very depressing if you buy the author's ideas in full) read this:

http://www.hedgefund...or-understanding.pdf

And there's an interesting piece on the guy who wrote that article in the New Yorker this month:

http://goo.gl/h14hA

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