Messages

1101

General Software Discussion / Re: Software recommendations for writers

« on: May 07, 2011, 12:51 PM »

I mostly use two programs:- Liquid Story Binder (shareware) and TreeDBNotes (free version probably sufficient). Both have multiple ways of organising/reorganising what you have written, both have the ability to store/give easy access to other info you will want to use while writing, both are in active development with good support, both have an option for a simple writing screen should that be what you want, both have a variety of import/export options. Liquid Story Binder is set up for writers, TreeDBNOtes sells itself as an outliner/PIM - but I mostly use it for writing.

There is also the Windows beta version of Scrivener, a very well regarded/popular writing program for the Mac. I have tried it, but saw no reason to move from the programs I already use.

1102

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10

« on: May 04, 2011, 02:23 AM »

Pity the extra money doesn't reach GP Software.

-michaelkenward (May 03, 2011, 04:31 PM)

Where does it go?

-mwb1100 (May 03, 2011, 06:23 PM)

I think he means it is just eaten up by the exchange rate change. It is only the same number of Australian dollars for GP Software

1103

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10

« on: April 30, 2011, 04:53 PM »

Only space for one discount code on the buy page. I did check by going through the upgrade links.

1104

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10

« on: April 30, 2011, 03:41 PM »

it's too expensive for an actual license...

-Tuxman (April 30, 2011, 12:46 PM)

Maybe. It's certainly more expensive than the "competition". And I don't like the still expensive upgrade price. But it works very well &, even though I use Q-Dir probably more often & also have a lifetime license for XY (& use Shellless quite a lot too on my 2nd computer), I will almost certainly upgrade. It has been 4 years since the last major version change, & it was regularly improved over that period, & it is easy to see why this is a major version change. And there is the DC 25% discount which is presumably still available.

1105

Living Room / Karen Kenworthy RIP

« on: April 25, 2011, 06:42 PM »

I was very sad to hear of the death of Karen Kenworthy (KarenWare.com) earlier this month.

1106

Site/Forum Features / Re: I think we should close the Company Complaints and Compliments Section

« on: April 23, 2011, 03:27 PM »

I don't have ... any position on those arguments other than to have privately reached out to both sides and told them they were making the situation worse with the tone of their posts and the ad hominem attacks -- not that my advice seems to have had much influence. 

-mouser (April 22, 2011, 06:38 AM)

Indeed.

1107

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for "Always on Top" Software for Windows 7

« on: April 23, 2011, 01:13 AM »

I use Actual Windows Manager

Not free, but very good. Does more than just pushpins though.

1108

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: XYplorer Lifetime License Pro on offer BdJ Friday 8th April 2011

« on: April 08, 2011, 06:53 AM »

I wonder... is there any benefit to purchasing this if one already has a license to DO9?

-cthorpe (April 08, 2011, 06:23 AM)

I have both. I actually use DO & Q-Dir.

I am sure there are benefits to XY that I don't take advantage of.

1109

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 04:14 PM »

So, Mouser, is the proposal that you send the Cody replacement around to deserving members?
No wonder the fundraising is going so well.

1110

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 06, 2011, 10:05 PM »

Well since you choose to respect people who take covert actions than someone like me who speaks out,

-lotusrootstarch (March 06, 2011, 09:39 PM)

I'd've thought a hidden identity was covert

1111

General Software Discussion / Re: Trying to switch to Opera: Need help, tips

« on: March 01, 2011, 04:26 PM »

I use Lastpass and AdMuncher (not free). Both work fine on Opera, or any other browser I fire up.

1112

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to share To-Do lists?

« on: February 22, 2011, 11:59 AM »

Does what you ask.

And a whole host of other things, should you ever need/want them.

Abstractspoon's ToDoList2

1113

General Software Discussion / Re: SpiderPlayer Pro Becomes Free

« on: February 13, 2011, 04:01 PM »

Very sad as it is my favourite music player.

The developer stopped developing it once before (felt he had added all the features that it wanted/needed), but then started developing it again. Was on BitsDuJour on 18th Nov, and I got my last update at the end of December, so this looks like a recent, sudden decision.

OTOH, it works very well at what it does & I can understand him wanting to leave it as it is. And the free version was always very functional, and the Pro version very cheap, so I assume he never made much money from it. Or even seemed to want to make money from it. I'm quite happy carrying on with it just as I am.

1114

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Sagelight Image Editor - pay what you want promo (Apil 2010)

« on: January 17, 2011, 05:19 AM »

and v4 (Part 1) pre-release beta is now out! 

Details HERE

1115

Living Room / Re: R.I.P. MySpace

« on: January 12, 2011, 11:04 AM »

Like the guy who won and lost $100K in a poker game, it must be incredibly depressing to live with the certain knowledge you HAD it -and totally blew it.

-40hz (January 12, 2011, 08:23 AM)

I don't know. They had it - and they sold it (for a pretty good price, given that they were already losing out to Facebook).

It's Murdoch taking the loss (& the responsibility for its decline). 

1116

Developer's Corner / Re: "competitive upgrade" - is it ethical?

« on: January 11, 2011, 04:32 PM »

You have to realise that people who have bought a competing product are a group of potential customers who have particular characteristics:

• they have already spent money on this type of product and spending the same again may be a step too far
• but this investment shows that they have a real interest/need for your type of product and may well be serial upgraders if you can get them and keep them happy
• if they have even just looked at your offer, you know they are at least somewhat dissatisfied with what they have

And the reason you offer upgrade deals anyway is because people in general are very unhappy about paying the full price on a regular basis. I can certainly see why competitive upgrade offers are seen as being a good strategy.

And there are swathes of the IT industry where attracting other vendors customers is the only game in town.

I also think it is B/S to think that this works better for larger vendors. Software usually has a relatively limited maintenance cost per customer, so each sale is pure extra money unless a discount just reduces the price for a sale that would be made anyway. My guess is that customers of other companies will relatively rarely want to buy your product at full price (unless it is a low price area where some people (naming no names) are happy to build up a whole collection of licenses). BDJ type sales may lose a few full price sales, especially for companies that do them regularly, but I think it would be very rare for this to be the case with competitive upgrades.

1117

Living Room / Re: Why I love product reviews....written by NON-TECHS

« on: January 10, 2011, 09:32 PM »

This guy rocks - Ken Rockwell.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/

His reviews are fantastic. But he's RARE. There are not many people like that out there. He's the sort of person that you want to read reviews from.

-Renegade (January 10, 2011, 08:36 PM)

You do need to understand his biases though.

1118

Living Room / Re: Are You Ready to Switch to GNU/Linux?

« on: January 10, 2011, 09:28 PM »

This is an area where English is simply deficient and Chinese excels. Where a single pronunciation and spelling in English is ambiguous, Chinese characters differ and make the exact meaning clear. We really need to be verbose at times in English in order to not send the wrong message.

-Renegade (January 10, 2011, 08:10 PM)

 

You then go on to give some examples that clarify the meaning rather than using the word "free".

As a constantly evolving and highly flexible language(s), English gives a vast range of options to its speakers. Ranging from words that define meaning precisely, to usages rich in allusion or insinuation, to usages (frequently colloquial) that almost seems designed to allow the maximum range of meanings to be eked from limited vocabularies. Precise meaning can come from the individual word or word groups or can arise from the context.

The whole "free" thing arises from people enjoying the word play the word 'free' offers.

Admittedly, it also seems to have been deliberately misused in this thread to imply things that were never meant. "Free market" and "free speech" are usages where the meaning is defined in the specific word pair rather than the word 'free'  as an adjective. Just as there is a misuse of the concept of 0 in an equation. Simply people having fun, I assumed.

1119

General Software Discussion / Re: Your most used SPECIAL programs

« on: January 05, 2011, 11:58 AM »

From what I have read (I've not tried it) Outline 4D seems to be aimed at screen writers. I did also note a comment somewhere that it was basically a 2005 program that hadn't been updated since (except for something very marginal) and was freshened up by being given a new name - but still the same program underneath. Not really a problem,, I suppose, if it is already as good as it needs to be.

1120

General Software Discussion / Re: What is your preferred server OS for home use? And Why?

« on: January 05, 2011, 11:50 AM »

I've had a NAS for many years. Set up with hardware based RAID. I've also used backup programs for many years.

Increasingly, though, I have become concerned about how much security they really bring. I've not had a failure with either (yet); at least, that I know about. And it is knowing about it that I really want to do. A backup is always a worry unless you check every time that it has everything and you can read it. I'm now much happier just syncing all my data files, and periodically copying them in their entirety to other drives/places (with copies of various stuff in places on the net). It is very easy to copy TrueCrypt volumes too. It means I can check or use either set of files in normal use; I always sync in one direction only (feeling that gives me a bit of extra protection against something going wrong), so I have to remember to save everything on to one drive only, but that is not a problem. I also image my OS/App drive regularly. I know most of them are OK because I do check from time to time, and I can always rebuild from scratch if necessary anyway.

And my NAS? Well, when I get around to it I will just copy everything off it, reformat it without RAID and use it as separate drives. I just don't see that RAID is bringing me anything I need right now. With the current price and speed of usb3/sata3 drives & SSDs, it seems best to just add them as I need them.

PS I voted for FreeNAS, because that is all I would use a home server for. If I wanted a real server, I'd go Linux. Much more familiar with Linux servers than Windows Servers.

1121

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PDF to EPUB $39.95 -> $00.00

« on: December 30, 2010, 07:15 AM »

I'll be interested to know what you make of it.

Mixed info HERE at least by the end of the thread.

1122

Living Room / Re: Not backing up will cost you!

« on: December 25, 2010, 06:47 PM »

I have to agree with all the concerns about using RAID; reflects my own thinking. I still have a NAS set up with RAID. I'm not especially anxious about it as I have everything duplicated elsewhere (& not had any problems with it so far) but redoing it without RAID is on my list of things to do. I feel that multiple copies, in multiple places is the best way to be sure you don't lose all access to your data.

1123

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Image-Line FL Studio 50% OFF

« on: December 25, 2010, 06:39 PM »

I've also seen it pointed out that the free updates have pushed them to sell a lot of plug-ins that they might otherwise have bundled, putting them into competition with plug-in developers. Which may, or may not, be a good thing. You could think that it might also lead them to put more effort into plug-ins rather than the central product. I'm all in favour of lifetime licenses, but they aren't viable for all vendors in all markets; and I think that this is one of the markets where it's not viable. Very competitive, still developing fast.

An interesting comparison in this market is with Reaper. A very transparent and fair license system (eg the current very fair and explicit pricing for their impending new version giving new customers a chance to buy now or wait); a fully functioning 30-day trial (unlike FL which only offers a demo) that never actually expires (though I daresay they might consider changing this if they thought it was really hampering the development of their product and community). And still much cheaper even than the discounted FL prices for a more comprehensive and faster developing DAW (except for commercial licenses).

OTOH, there are some things that FL does well, and this is an attractive price for it and it can be used in another DAW just for those things. Just under a week to think about it; hmmm ...

1124

Circle Dock / Re: uninstalling?

« on: December 24, 2010, 04:21 AM »

Unless, you have the original version (ie the one currently available).
This version doesn't install and you can simply delete the folder(s) and it will be completely gone.

1125

General Software Discussion / Re: Upgrading RoboForm from v6 to v7: worthwhile?

« on: December 18, 2010, 09:42 AM »

AFAICT, by paying $9.95 for the first year, I am entitled to use Roboform Everywhere on any machine/USB thumbdrive but standalone (IE not sync'd to the cloud) installations are $20 a pop to upgrade from 6 to 7? Seems like a no brainer to me, from a dollars and cents perspective, but it also seems too good to be true.

-Darwin (December 18, 2010, 08:44 AM)

I'm not sure why you feel $9.95 in first year and $19.95 annually thereafter is too good to be true.