Messages

226

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Drive launched

« on: April 26, 2012, 09:31 PM »

A good breakdown of the privacy issue:

Google Drive: The truth about data ownership | Cloud Pro
http://www.cloudpro....about-data-ownership

... there are still some causes for legitimate concern about the wording of what followed, and was less widely reported by the Twitterati: "This licence continues even if you stop using our Services". That's the license in which you are granting Google the rights to use your data for the "limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving" its services as well as to "develop new ones”.

And there lies the rub methinks, this is less about data ownership and more about data usage, privacy and security. Google does not, as it clearly states, own your data; ownership remains with the user, but it sure as heck does seem to expect an awful big slice of privilege when it comes to what it can do with that data forever more.

If I were to put any sensitive files on their servers, I'd simply encrypt them first.

227

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Drive launched

« on: April 26, 2012, 12:29 PM »

 

How reassuring! 

Thankfully, they only have my dog's photo archive so far, and I don't think he'll mind. I'll hold on to the rest of the stuff for a while.

228

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Drive launched

« on: April 26, 2012, 12:18 PM »

I HAZ!

The desktop app is bare bones, it didn't ask me for an install location (as usual) and I had to disable the GoogleUpdate service (I have collected three entries for their update services over time, all disabled). There's no decent upload progress indicator either. /whine

I am more than happy with the core service. The two-step security is reassuring and has enabled me to get way less paranoid about my email since I started using it a few months back. So, Google Drive looks like a keeper. 

229

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: 1-action Unzip

« on: April 25, 2012, 01:43 PM »

The most seamless handling of zip files I've seen was by Zipmagic (not too sure what's become of the product... )

- they had something called ZipFolders.
Append .zip to a folder name and it gets compressed into a zip file.
Click on a zip file and it opens in Windows Explorer, just as a folder would.

Wonder why that didn't catch on or get built right into Windows Explorer... I'd love for a utility to handle .rar files that way.

230

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft takes on Dropbox with major SkyDrive update

« on: April 25, 2012, 02:27 AM »

Files + info you've shared over email vs. every single file on your computer.

Kind of a big step up, I'd say! 

But I agree with you in principle, they have a lot to be worried about. 
*note to self: change passwords*

231

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft takes on Dropbox with major SkyDrive update

« on: April 25, 2012, 02:08 AM »

Still worrying. It would have been nicer if the second factor was restricted to just the mobile phone. There are a whole lot of people working with already compromised email accounts.

232

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft takes on Dropbox with major SkyDrive update

« on: April 25, 2012, 01:05 AM »

Yup, scary stuff. The blackhats must be ecstatic!

233

General Software Discussion / Re: Microsoft takes on Dropbox with major SkyDrive update

« on: April 24, 2012, 11:53 PM »

Google Drive, SkyDrive & Dropbox compared [Digital Inspiration]
http://www.labnol.or...drive-dropbox/21214/

The 2-step (phone based) security that Google provides is the killer feature for me.

234

Living Room / Re: good Videos [short films] here :)

« on: April 24, 2012, 11:35 PM »

Wow! That was captivating... excellent audio too!

Anyone who enjoys dark anim must watch Coraline.

Opening credits:
http://www.artofthet...2009/11/09/coraline/
(couldn't find an HD version on Youtube)

235

Living Room / Re: Happy Birthday Renegade!

« on: April 23, 2012, 12:09 PM »

Happy Birthday!

That's one seriously twisted card! 

236

Post New Requests Here / Re: Enter my blog to post

« on: April 21, 2012, 04:35 AM »

Contro, try w.bloggar - it's an offline blogging tool, non-MS and there's a portable version available.

I cannot comment on how well it'll work since I used it very briefly, years back. Live Writer is my tool of choice.

External write up: http://www.earnblogg...blogs-with-wblogger/
Download: http://wbloggar.com/download.php

237

General Software Discussion / Re: W7 taskbar>toolbar>'desktop' extremely slow

« on: April 20, 2012, 10:05 AM »

Move all "special" shortcuts that don't point to files on your local hard disk away temporarily. See if that makes a difference. It's easy enough to move them back in.

238

General Software Discussion / Re: W7 taskbar>toolbar>'desktop' extremely slow

« on: April 20, 2012, 09:34 AM »

Do any of these shortcuts point to targets on a network or optical drive? Basically anything other than local hard drives... those may be taking a while to resolve.

239

Living Room / Re: New iPad owner. Please suggest Apps.

« on: April 16, 2012, 09:11 AM »

iTransmission 2 BitTorrent Client For iPhone / iPad [TorrentFreak]
http://torrentfreak....-iphone-ipad-120416/

Needless to mention, for jailbroken devices only.

240

General Software Discussion / Re: Rightnote, commercial alternative to abandonware Keynote

« on: April 14, 2012, 02:57 PM »

And no need to "gloat", I'm not a Fanboy.

 
Didn't mean to imply you were one.


Objects! Both TreeDBNotes and Rightnote (running in a VM) couldn't handle an embedded Excel worksheet, they'd let me start off with it, work on it and when I tried to open it again they'd throw a "%1 not found" error.

WinOrganizer handles them slightly better but it's still too unreliable to risk wasting time and effort.

241

General Software Discussion / Re: Rightnote, commercial alternative to abandonware Keynote

« on: April 14, 2012, 02:30 PM »

I didn't intend to carry on our little diversion in this Rightnote thread, but I chanced across something in the TreeDB forum that was a bit too pertinent to pass up.

I searched "Global Search" on the forum to see if there was something I was missing about the feature and came across this fairly recent thread (Nov, 2011)

http://forum.mytreed...5af2b9e2d5dfb#p12245

Postby coolrat33 » 16 Nov 2011 03:03
Yesterday I had an infurating experience.

I wrote a long note about a complex book I was reading. To work more conveniently, I opened the TreeDB node in an external viewer (a cool feature but now I'm very skeptical about its reliability), resized the window to take up half my monitor, and read a PDF file in the other half.

At some point, I clicked "save the file to database", and must have closed the window. But when I went to look for the file, it was gone. Disappeared off my system. I did a 'global search' but was unable to locate it. It didn't save.

I have not been able to replicate this problem. But I NEVER lose my work by my own mistake in LibreOffice and believe there must be a problem with this feature.
Please look into this

Post by Admin » 17 Nov 2011 07:18
Ok, we will try to explore this function again.

Post by Admin » 21 Nov 2011 14:19
We make some changes in this function. Version: 4.2 Build 03

Postby coolrat33 » 22 Nov 2011 02:29
Hi Admin.

I'll test out the new version. I hope it fixes the various bugs that plagued the previous version.
The app is great... but the bugs are often serious and cause problems that waste many hours of the users time. Its frustrating :x

I'll test this feature and let you know what I find.
Thank you

So it appears my gut feeling was spot on, after all.

OK, all done gloating. Apologies if I'm being obnoxious, it was just too good to pass up.  

TreeDBNotes does show a lot of promise though, I plan to keep an eye on the developement. Right now the deal-breaker for me is the weak global search. Also, when I'm searching contacts, I don't want to specify exactly which field to search for. Let's hope the userbase pushes the dev towards more thorough search functionality. Rightnote has perhaps the best search I've seen in an organizer. *nosh successfully hits the on-topic button*

242

DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Congratulations on meeting (or nearly meeting) your fund raising goal

« on: April 14, 2012, 09:38 AM »

The few who do like me I tend to drive away at some point or another

.

It's like I have a twin! 

donotcrack, welcome to DC! (Lol @ the nick!  )

243

General Software Discussion / Re: Rightnote, commercial alternative to abandonware Keynote

« on: April 12, 2012, 05:44 PM »

Fair points, TaoPhoenix. Yes, softwares get their features through their developers and user communities. 

My concern is, if today there are quirks showing up in areas that aren't significant, it shakes my faith in the quality of the development. I don't want a quirk showing up tomorrow that directly affects the data because the devs are juggling a bit more than they can handle. Robustness is critical, esp. considering the kind of data a program of this nature is meant to handle.

244

General Software Discussion / Re: Rightnote, commercial alternative to abandonware Keynote

« on: April 12, 2012, 10:25 AM »

Have any of you looked at TreeDBNotes Pro?

I tried it briefly today. I've been looking for something to replace Winorganizer forever. It has a heck of a lot of features, for sure. I wouldn't call it slow but it felt slightly clunky compared to Winorganizer.

I didn't like the global search since I expected it to search everything in the file (eg: contacts too), not just search the notes. Am I missing something?

Also, does it have its own spreadsheet feature? I tried it v.briefly so could have missed it.

If I had to choose between TreeDBNotes Pro and Rightnote, I'd pick the former... it suits my requirements more closely.

I tend to be wary about programs that like to bundle everything and the kitchen sink and I can see this happening with TreeDBNotes Pro. They already have a LOT going on and the interface could be more intuitive. Still, it's the best alternative to Winorganizer I've come across (and I've tried quite a few apps), so thanks for mentioning it.

245

Living Room / Re: Post Your Funny Videos Here [NSFW]

« on: April 12, 2012, 08:51 AM »

"Kill it with violence!"

I just can't stop laughing at the audio 
http://www.liveleak....iew?i=e4a_1334156442

246

Living Room / Re: New iPad owner. Please suggest Apps.

« on: April 11, 2012, 01:28 AM »

I reserve IP addresses for specific MAC addresses in the router settings, BTW.

247

Living Room / Re: Cats imitating art

« on: April 11, 2012, 01:15 AM »

LMAO!

Spoiler

^

248

Living Room / Re: New iPad owner. Please suggest Apps.

« on: April 11, 2012, 01:01 AM »

Strange - I use an iPad 1st gen and never lose the connection, maybe it's a range issue? I remember it acting flaky once, after an OS upgrade... deleting the wifi settings and setting them up from scratch sorted it out.

249

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Install Tip: When windows wants to reboot, I suggest you let it

« on: April 11, 2012, 12:36 AM »

There's always WhyReboot, for those of us anal enough to want to know why. It's not perfect (seems abandoned) but all it does is query information, so I'd recommend it.

250

Living Room / Re: New iPad owner. Please suggest Apps.

« on: April 11, 2012, 12:17 AM »

I've been meaning to start an iPad apps thread for a while but have been too lazy about it. Here we go...

On the Splash screen (most frequently used)

Atomic Browser (configured with bookmarklets for ReadItLater, ReadItNow (access your ReadItLater list), Readibility, TinyURL, Define highlighted word, Translation for highlighted words, and a link to the Everything (voidtools.com) http server running on my PC <-works brilliantly


Twitbird Pro (I like it for the search/filtering feature)
Flickr Studio
Photogene (photo editing)
ArtStudio (drawing)
Wordbook XL (The go-to dictionary because it's quick)
Goodreader
iBooks
Soundhound
Movie Guide (Reviews by Leonard Maltin a.k.a God)
IMDB
Flickster
AirVideo (stream movies from wifi, you'll need a PC client running)
FileBrowser (browse files on wifi - mostly used for images)
Wunderlist (To Do app that syncs across devices)
iTap VNC (remote control PC, works great with a multi-mon setup and doesn't log u out like an RDP client would)


Categories...

News & Radio
CNN
BBC News
Al Jazeera
ActionRadio
Your favorite news channel probably has an app too (most have live streaming video so it's more convenient having an app, than hitting the site using your browser.)

"Social" apps & site specific apps
Yahoo Messenger
Facebook
Target, eBay have apps

Office
Numbers, Pages (official Apple apps, good for editing, creating)
Quickoffice (I've found it to be the fastest app for viewing Office docs)
Merriam Webster Dictionary (the 2nd choice, it has word pronunciations and voice recognition <- (not very reliable))

Games & Entertainment
iChess Pack HD (fantastic FICS client)
Draw Some
I had Angry Birds HD but got rid of it coz I realized I was wasting way too much time on it
Shazam (sometimes recognizes songs that SoundHound doesn't)

Reference & Misc.
Google Earth
Weather HD (fantastic interface)
FlightTrack
Epicurious
Convert
Clinometer (handy level app if you want to use your iPad as a cheap spirit level meter)
WebMD
Star Walk
The Elements
Drink-a-Dex (mixology)
Clock Pro
World Clock

Final thoughts:
There are exceptions but for the most part site-specific apps are not worth it, so try the site in your browser before you consider installing an app for it.

For RSS feeds I've found using Google Reader from the browser (rather than getting an RSS app) most convenient. Try this route, unless you have a loathing for Google.

The same applies for ReadItLater, once you have the right bookmarklets installed.