Messages

26

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: September 13, 2009, 05:44 PM »

Instead of printing I just take a screen capture when I've ordered something online. I of course use Screenshot Captor to make this process easy.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: September 07, 2009, 02:23 PM »

Thanks mwang! I've installed it, I'll play with it for a while and report back...

Initial impression: it seems to work like I want, sweet!

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Found Deals and Discounts / Alibre CAD Standard for $99 ("90% off") until 8/31/09

« on: August 25, 2009, 03:46 AM »

If anyone out there is looking for a CAD software package you should check out Alibre. Full disclosure: I've never actually used the program, but it looks very good. The website has a bunch of videos if you're curious.

The $99 is technically 90% off their regular price of $999, but they have sales for $500 fairly often so this price is really more like 80% off.

[edit]
Novedge, not to be outdone, is selling it for $89! I imagine this will end on the 31st as well.
http://www.novedge.com/products/1558

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General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: August 16, 2009, 07:31 PM »

I've been just adding a second word as a work around. Usually the second word is something like "a" or "the".

Hmmm... I just got an idea, instead of a word I'll add a symbol (like ' or .) that way the search wont be messed up.

On that token, making the keyword for Google "g" works almost as good. I guess that way you could use "e" for eBay, "w" for Wikipedia, and "7" for dictionary.com (just kidding).

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General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: August 16, 2009, 12:39 AM »

This is probably as good of a time as any to ask this...

One thing that is very cool about Chrome is they have eliminated the stand alone search field and made it so anything (that doesn't follow normal URL rules) typed into the omnibar* gets searched for by the default search engine when you press <enter>. I figure Chrome knows that something typed into the omnibar that doesn't have a domain is NOT a URL so it doesn't waste time polling the DNS. It will also automatically search when multiple words are typed into the omnibar (I'm guessing for the same reason: URLs don't have spaces). Firefox will do the same thing with multiple words, but if you type a single word into the awesome bar and press <enter> it will wait an eternity (10 seconds or so) before searching. I'm assuming Firefox is polling the DNS for that single word with all the common domains after it.

Do any of you know how to make Firefox stop assuming I'm too lazy to type the domain and immediately search using my default search engine?

To put it a different way: if I type "winrar" into the awesomebar Firefox takes literally 10 seconds to open a Google search for the term "winrar". Is there a way to make this instant (without having to also type a search-keyword)?

* I think that's what the address bar is called in Google Chrome

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General Software Discussion / Re: Deciphering Win7 Upgrades: The Official Chart

« on: August 13, 2009, 07:00 PM »

Gizmodo made a little upgrade chart for Mac Snow Leopard.


I confess, I didn't actually read the article (I've been happy with Vista and am even happier with 7) but if you want to, here's the link...
The Real Cost of Upgrading to Mac OS X Snow Leopard

32

Post New Requests Here / Re: WinFill - better than Aero Snap?

« on: August 05, 2009, 02:45 PM »

I've been thinking about asking if something like this could be done. I was searching google for ideas and wouldn't you know it, the solution is on a website I check nearly every day... LOL

I haven't actually tried it (I'm a lil' reluctant to install autohotkey for some idiotic reason) but I'll be sure to soon.

33

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

« on: July 28, 2009, 03:09 AM »

When I was first considering going back to Firefox (from Chrome) I tried to do a couple of "tests" to see which one was faster. What I did probably wasn't scientific, but it was conclusive enough for me.

I would open both browsers, click the bookmark button in Chrome then click the same bookmark button in Firefox. Firefox would actually finish loading the page before Chrome, even though Chrome got a head start.

Maybe by messing with the settings the results would have been different.

Hmmm, I just tried it again. They were both very fast but about even, if one is faster it's not appreciably faster in my opinion.

34

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome: Time for a Second Chance?

« on: July 15, 2009, 02:40 AM »

I was using it since it first appeared on Google.com until Firefox 3.5 (final) came out.

It does launch quite fast. A related problem I had with it is that there weren't many options for how it opens. IIRC you can either have it open all the tabs you had open before, or start fresh every time. There isn't an option like there is with Firefox (and IE I believe) that asks you what you want to do.

What I found really bothersome is that if you close the program by closing the last tab with the little "X" on the tab it would open that tab again the next time you launch the program. I rarely want the last tab(s) to be re-opened so this is one instance where I would personally prefer to be asked every time I close the browser.

It may be a fact that it launches each tab as its own process, but in my experience if one tab crashes the rest will go with it anyway.

And, as you've mentioned, extension support is limited at best. I don't know the technical reasons there aren't extensions like AdBlock and Flashblock for Chrome, I can just tell you that their absence is glaring.


On the other hand it does a couple other things better than Firefox. If you drag a tab out of Chrome you can place it anywhere you want on your screen and it'll create a new browser at that location. With Firefox you can drag the tab wherever you want, when you drop it the new browser window will appear just as if you had hit "CTRL + N".


Another small thing I like about Chrome is they made it so all "File Path" fields (like what is used to attach an image in this forum) are changed into "Choose File" buttons. Again, this isn't a big thing, but I'm frequently still surprised when the Choose File dialog pops up when all I did was click to put the cursor in an empty field.


Also, they've combined the address bar with the search bar. Anything that has a domain (.com, .net, .org, .whatever) will be sent to the DNS server (I guess) and anything without a domain (or anything with spaces in it) will automatically be sent to your default search engine. Firefox will do this too, but it seems to try to get the IP for everything put into the address bar.


Another thing it does is it puts a resizing... uh... "chevron"* on every text box that allows you to make it bigger. It's real useful for forums. I bet there's a Firefox extension that will do the same thing though.

* sure, that's a good word for it

I'd still recommend giving it a try. The little things that bother me may not make a difference to you and the little things that I don't notice may be exactly what you're looking for.

35

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 evaluation

« on: July 08, 2009, 09:13 PM »

Thanks for the tip, unfortuantely it did not help.

Only thing I was able to find quickly and since I didn't know what exactly to searh for was make Win7 x64 use all your mem…. Unfortuantely that did not help me, the option it says to uncheck was already unchecked.

-mrHappy (July 08, 2009, 03:58 PM)

I'll just throw this out there since this is Windows we're talking about: try unchecking it, restarting, then checking it, and restarting again. Of course the restarts may not be necessary, but they'll make sure the settings are saved.

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General Software Discussion / Re: need help sorting my photos

« on: July 03, 2009, 06:43 AM »

Are these photos of people primarily? I saw a Mac ad recently where they said their photo program does facial recognition, I wonder if there is PC software that does the same thing.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Is There Anyway????

« on: July 03, 2009, 04:24 AM »

LOL, the first time I saw that message I didn't realize it was spam. Good job connieconstance...

Message reported.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Hotkey problem

« on: July 02, 2009, 06:05 PM »

I haven't had good experiences with Gateway "support", hopefully we can do you better.

What does the error message say exactly? What is the name of the keyboard program?

What happens if you try to launch the program manually? It might also help to launch it as an administrator.


Have you already searched for a new version of that program?

A long shot: open "Programs and Features" in the Control Panel and see if the keyboard program is in the list. If it is, it's possible it has some kind of "repair" option.


Welcome to Donation Coder!

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General Software Discussion / Re: Does a application like this exist? (start random videos, but only unique)

« on: July 01, 2009, 08:39 PM »

You might check out J. River Media Center too. I bet you could create a "Smart List" (which is an automatically generated playlist) that only has videos which either haven't been played or which haven't been played since today's date.

I don't use Media Center for videos yet (for some reason) but I'm pretty sure it's possible to make it use your default media player to actually play the video. I imagine the smartlist would look a little something like this...

(Like I said, I don't use MC for video yet, but I imagine you would select "The Simpsons" in the "Series" drop list.)

Media Center doesn't really qualify as a "small application" though.


Another option is to create a playlist in your favorite player, shuffle it, then play the playlist from beginning to end. The KMPlayer will remember your last played file and you can save your playlist as an album. I'm not sure if it'll remember the last played file of each album though, so you might end up going through the list looking for the first one you haven't seen*.


* Every now and then you can delete all the entries in the playlist that you've watched to make it easier to find the first one you haven't seen if the need arises.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: July 01, 2009, 02:52 AM »

Wow, Aardvark is very, very cool, thanks for suggesting it! I didn't know Nuke Anything had competition. I'll keep both installed, but I have a feeling Aardvark will be the only one I install in the future. The "Kill"/"RIP" feature sounds awesome, have you used it 4wd?

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General Software Discussion / Firefox --3.5-- Extensions: Your favorite or most useful

« on: July 01, 2009, 12:08 AM »

The other "Firefox extensions topic" is long and quite old so I figured a new one is in order. But, if the powers that be decide to delete this thread that's no big deal.

Now that I'm back to using Firefox I've realized how much I enjoy tweaking my browser. Here's my list so far...

• Flashblock - I'm sure most of you know about this already, but for those who don't: it blocks flash objects and replaces them with empty boxes with a Play button. Click the Play button to display the flash object. Useful because flash stuff on webpages is often annoying. It also comes with a button that can be added to the toolbar that enables and disables the extension.
  
  
  
• Download Statusbar - Adds a small... uh... status bar to the bottom of firefox for each download. (Similar to what Chrome does, but this was released long before.)
  
  
  
• Findbar Basics - I got this because it makes "Ctrl + F" both open AND close the find bar, it has a couple other features too. - Thanks for the tip Innuendo!
  
  
• Nuke Anything Enhanced (Aardvark looks better, see posts below) - This is mostly for printing, select stuff and "nuke" it, which removes it from the web page. Now when you print you aren't wasting ink on a bunch of ads and junk.
  Before and After...
  
  
  
• Close Tab By Double Click - You can normally middle-click to close tabs in Firefox, this lets you close tabs by double clicking, just like in Directory Opus.
  

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General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox 3.5 [FINAL]

« on: June 30, 2009, 11:32 PM »

I've been using Google Chrome since the first public beta came out (I think). Now I'm back to Firefox! As far as I can tell it's got everything I liked about Chrome, plus it has Flashblock.

I used this to make FirefoxPortable the default browser in Windows 7 RC. The little program seems to work. Other than that I don't know anything about it... Norton said it's not a virus though, so that's good.


Small complaint: I would like to have "X" buttons on both the tabs and on the right. Also, I'd also like to have an "X" button on the last tab.

43

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« on: June 30, 2009, 12:32 AM »

I didn't think so, and the Engadget blurb suggested it was legit by saying...

While no numbers are given, the 17 retailers involved in the pre-order sales, who presumably have no vested interest in trying to inflate perceptions on behalf of Microsoft, report sales as "considerable"...

The Engadget story has been updated...

Update: Engadget Japanese tells us that the 30,000 copies were sold according to Microsoft.

44

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« on: June 29, 2009, 05:13 AM »

Whoa, apparently they "ran out" of discounted pre-sales in Japan!

http://www.engadget....s-sell-out-in-japan/

45

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« on: June 27, 2009, 07:36 AM »

Does anyone know if Win7Pro media will have the 64-bit version as well , or its only 32-bit ?
MS seems to be silent about 64-bit Win7Pro in this promo.

SKA

-SKA (June 27, 2009, 03:06 AM)

I don't know what was there before, but here's the Microsoft site now...

The trouble is that it is not a simple currency conversion for the UK.

MS aren't offering the upgrade versions at all, but are offering promo prices on the retail version.
For instance, Home Premium £50 = approx $83 at current rates. There are advantages for some people with this. Still have to see what sale prices will actually be. Compared to prices in the past, the pre-order pricing is very good and MS seem to have the marketing right on this to get W7 off to a good start, unlike Vista.
...

-Dormouse (June 27, 2009, 07:27 AM)

I wish I could order a full version at a discounted price! $83 is less than most of the copies of Vista I bought (I think I got one of them for like $35 though).

...
Feel sorry for anyone who paid good money for Vista, but that's probably what has got the rest of us better prices now.
...

-Dormouse (June 27, 2009, 07:27 AM)

Yeah... I've got a full retail version of Vista Home Premium that I bought, but have never used. I wish I could "trade up" or something.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Hidden toolbar will not respond in XP

« on: June 27, 2009, 04:09 AM »

Sweet! I feel so helpful!

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General Software Discussion / Re: Hidden toolbar will not respond in XP

« on: June 26, 2009, 06:54 PM »

Hmmm... as a person who also uses a toolbar on the left side of the screen (now that I'm using Windows 7 I have the whole Task Super Bar on the left) I can appreciate how much of a drag this must be.

What happens if you try to move the Task Bar over there?

Did you create the toolbar by dragging a folder over there? Can you delete the folder? I figure renaming it might not be good enough.

Maybe starting in Safe Mode or logging in as an Administrator might help.

Does the toolbar have a name that you could use to search the registry? I used-to use a folder named "Shortcuts" which probably wouldn't help too much in a search, but if it's called something like "Quick Access Applications" you might be able to find something in the registry pretty quickly.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« on: June 26, 2009, 06:42 PM »

Here's a comparison chart: http://windows.micro...cts/compare-editions

The differences are few. The only thing I see that Home Premium doesn't have that I might want is BitLocker. I figure I'll just use TrueCrypt instead.

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General Software Discussion / Windows 7 limited time upgrade discount starting tomorrow (June 26th)

« on: June 25, 2009, 04:34 PM »

Sorry, I didn't like the first version of this post, so I re-wrote it...


Microsoft has announced the prices for the various Windows 7 editions, they're keeping them at pretty much the same prices as Vista... They're also starting a promotion tomorrow that will let people order the upgrade versions for around 50% of what they will be a couple weeks from now.



Prices...
Ultimate
Upgrade Promo: not available
Upgrade: $220
Retail: $320
OEM: ?

Professional
Upgrade Promo: $100
Upgrade: $200
Retail: $300
OEM: ?

Home Premium
Upgrade Promo: $50
Upgrade: $120
Retail: $200
OEM: ?

Here's an article with more info: Computerworld: Microsoft discounts Windows 7 Home Premium to $50; deal to last two weeks

I'm weary of "upgrading" Windows from one version to another, but this deal is just about too good to pass up. If I wasn't so broke I'd grab one of these up and just plan to install XP first, then be forced do do a CLEAN install of Windows 7.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Google Browser - No, Not Chrome! (what's that?)

« on: June 18, 2009, 05:48 AM »

That's great! It reminds me of when I try to ask people if they use webmail or an e-mail client, it usually takes a few minutes to explain the differences.