Messages

126

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: HDDlife Pro (and other disk-health reporters)

« on: April 04, 2006, 09:57 PM »

Just don't be lulled into a false sense of security. Every hard disk failure I've had (not a scientific sample) has been sudden, catastrophic, and without warning.

127

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Windows Start Menu manager

« on: March 26, 2006, 10:25 AM »

If you drag an item on the start menu before it's sub-menu becomes active then it won't actually drag.  This is very annoying.

-skywalka (March 20, 2006, 06:16 PM)

Have you tried adjusting the menu popup delay with Tweak UI or X-Setup Pro? My submenus pop up instantly.

128

Living Room / Re: Downloading your Gmail Account

« on: March 21, 2006, 07:45 AM »

Another benefit of POPping gmail: no ads. Allen, what do you mean by

because of gmail/Opera being only tolerant of one another

? I use Opera and Gmail together, though I receive few gmails.

129

Living Room / Re: Free Greenlight subscription

« on: March 20, 2006, 06:45 PM »

Thanks for trying to come to my defense, mouser.

For the record, I emailed this link to mouser because I thought it fit his interests. He suggested I post. I wasn't thinking about clickable links, so I deleted the obvious http://www. (In Opera I never enter those, anyway.) My mistake.

I'm amused that the erroneous link has drawn so much interest but the magazine apparently nil. To each his own.

130

General Software Discussion / Info Select trial

« on: March 20, 2006, 02:11 PM »

P.S.--There's no IS trial, but Micro Logic does offer full refunds if not satisfied.

131

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: March 20, 2006, 02:08 PM »

Sorry I missed Info Select discussion. I'd searched on Info Select (actual name), not InfoSelect.

132

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.

133

Living Room / Re: Keeping track of software license/serial keys

« on: March 20, 2006, 01:20 PM »

I think Allen got it right, in that you don't really need to keep track of your license keys until your hard drive crashes or you want to reinstall elsewhere. If you just use a password manager on your HD, do you really want to have to restore from backup to access things?

A related point: storage of notes about what you installed,how, and other configuration data. As I install software I keep a log on my old Psion 5mx PDA (obsolete but useful keyboard), with backup on my PC. If I need to set up a new machine but don't want to clone  the old, I have easy, independent access to my notes.

134

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: March 20, 2006, 01:04 PM »

I don't think this discussion can be complete without mentioning the venerable but incredibly expensive Info Select from Micro Logic (miclog.com), which I believe pioneered this category. IS began under DOS as Tornado Notes, and has evolved into a very useful but somewhat bloated program. I've stuck with it for two reasons: I have so much information stored in it (used it continously since ~1985), and some features are so intuitive (type N for new note, G for get, i.e., search).

This category is different from most in that switching among programs isn't just a matter of installing a new one; importing data usefully is often impossible.

Other programs to try include TreePad (various flavors including free) and GemX's TexNotes/TexNotes Pro and do-Organizer (full-fledged PIM with notes).

135

General Software Discussion / No avatar

« on: March 20, 2006, 01:00 PM »

I'm afraid the no-avatar look reflects my no-frills tastes; I was perfectly happy with the look and feel of DesqView! Incidentally longrun is used in the sense of "In the long run we're all dead." I'm not a runner.

136

General Software Discussion / Re: Must-have apps in the System tray?

« on: March 20, 2006, 11:30 AM »

Won't bore you with my entire list, but MSGTAG Status is invaluable (tells when someone's read my email; great tech support). AutoSave provides constant backups; Speedfan lets me know when I can fry an egg on my Tecra; and Pagoo takes my phone messages (I'm often on dialup).

137

Living Room / Re: Partitioning hard drive - any point?

« on: March 17, 2006, 08:33 PM »

I also use the Acronis TrueImage/Genie Backup routine and have partitions for OS, programs, data, and temp/swapfile, but I'm not sure I'd do it again. One thing you should be aware of if you're considering this is that many applications store valuable data in the Application Data folder under the OS, and other programs store data in unexpected places, so your "data" backup may not include everything you'd like.

138

General Software Discussion / Re: Filenotes for Downloading Amnesiacs

« on: March 17, 2006, 01:54 PM »

I, too, use Explorer Notes from PC Mag. Unfortunately it's no longer free and has a ~255 character limit, but if you use Explorer to drag a file or files to a new location the descriptions will move, too (if you want). I also use PowerDesk, which allows you to enter descriptions for files (supposedly for folder, too, but I can't get that to work. This holds longer descriptions than Explorer Notes but I believe the notes don't transfer if you move a file. There's a free version of PowerDesk; not sure if this supports notes (but the paid version is well worth the price).

139

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MyLife Organized (Time Management To-Do list maker)

« on: March 17, 2006, 01:04 PM »

In reading the review I discovered tasktoy (tasktoy.com), a wonderful, web-based task/to-do list manager. It's in the early stages of development but already offers some unique features. Most important for me is rearranging the order of items by dragging and dropping. I've been using Ta-da List, but rearranging items there takes too many steps.

140

General Software Discussion / Re: Opera 8.52

« on: March 05, 2006, 01:12 PM »

Opera is the best, and the preview of v9 is available. For better or worse, it incorporates certain shortcuts of Firefox to make switching easier.

141

General Software Discussion / Thanks for this!

« on: March 05, 2006, 01:07 PM »

This is great. GanttProject is another open-source alternative but seems far less powerful.

142

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.

143

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Windows system tray clock replacement

« on: January 04, 2006, 09:09 PM »

Just another vote for TClockEx, especially if you keep your taskbar on the right side of the screen, where nature intended it to be.

144

Living Room / Re: Anyone use Netflix or Blockbuster or any other online rental service?

« on: December 21, 2005, 03:12 PM »

I've used both Netflix and BB and found them comparable except for the free  BB rentals. However, you might check for the nearest distribution facility before making a decision. In my case, both have facilities within 25 miles, making for very fast turnaround.

145

Official Announcements / Re: Change to Official License Key Policy

« on: December 21, 2005, 03:07 PM »

Am I the only one who thinks things were fine as they were?

146

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?

147

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.

148

DesktopCoral / Re: Usefullness

« on: April 17, 2005, 11:47 PM »

DAMN IT!!!!
i knew there was a reason i couldn't find it in the dictionary...
yes it should be Corral.

-mouser (April 17, 2005, 01:02 AM)

_________
I thought you'd named it Coral because it formed a barrier like a coral reef. Who knew?

149

General Review Discussion / Offline browsers

« on: April 02, 2005, 03:15 PM »

I've looked at several offline browsers and have yet to get one to do exactly what I want. Of the many I've tried, Offline Explorer is the best. The test for me is to successfully make a scheduled download of all the articles in the NY Times Science and Opinion pages in their entirety, without downloading a bunch of extraneous material.

150

ProcessTamer / Re: Discrepancy between GUI and tray

« on: April 02, 2005, 02:00 PM »

Just confirmed this quirk. Started CPU eater. The tray says AutoSave.exe was being tamed, while the log correctly said CPUEater.