Messages

1726

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

« on: June 27, 2008, 06:09 AM »

Have you considered basket? I've not tried it myself, but its on my list of options to look at for when I am spending more time in Linux?

Though, looking at the website, it doesn't look as if it clips webpages directly.

1727

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: MyLife Organized (updated review for v2)

« on: June 27, 2008, 04:16 AM »

I have tried MLO on a fair number of occasions, and agree that v2 looks like a reasonable upgrade. It does seem pretty solid and the PDA sync seems to work well. I've been tempted to buy it every time I see it here at a substantial discount.

But then I ask myself whether I will actually use it. And I think of ToDoList. Entering all the parameters of a task on MLP is quite a long winded process. On TDL it is all on one screen. And the search and filter abilities are much better. No proper PDA prog or sync, though. So I always think "attractive but not efficient, don't buy". And I couldn't even start to be tempted at the normal price; might be different if I needed the PDA sync much more.

1728

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: GemX Crazy Summer Specials

« on: June 23, 2008, 04:30 AM »

I fully understand everyone's response to poor communication and the removal of the forums. If there are bugs/problems forums are an invaluable method for users to exchange info about how to circumvent/solve them even if there is no development or bug fixing going on. And useful for other uses and ways of working. And if the program is a key one, you cannot do with poor quality support.

That said, it seemed worth it to me, so I went ahead and bought a license ( ). License code arrived almost immediately. Still haven't had a response to my email about the 6 day trial. Still haven't managed to exchange info with my PDA (though DO can tell me the OS & battery state ).

1729

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: GemX Crazy Summer Specials

« on: June 22, 2008, 04:38 AM »

Thanks Beth, that's very helpful.

I wouldn't use it for anything I needed to rely on and generally prefer to use programs that do one thing, but I have really been struggling to find a time efficient way of managing a lot of 'minor' day-to-day stuff. Feeling pushed towards Outlook just as an easy (?! ) way of moving stuff between programs I do like and desktop & PDA.

Do-Organizer seems to work fast on my machine and all the components can be linked (though I can't say I'm thrilled by the methodology here), so I feel as if I can use it for the minor stuff (reams of it) and just use the other programs for the more important, must have all the details present and correct, stuff.

1730

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: GemX Crazy Summer Specials

« on: June 22, 2008, 04:04 AM »

I read the other thread and it intrigued me enough to download do-Organizer.

I wouldn't use it to replace programs I rely on, but as a quick way of doing a lot of things I want to link it seems very promising. Clearly some casual programming still going on - my 60 day trial only gives me 6 days  - but if the program works well enough (and I can get more out of it than I can by using other programs), I don't mind if development has stalled and support is poor.

What does trouble me though are the frequent references to bugs. If the bugs are things that don't work as they should, then I can cope with that. However, if they produce instability in the program that is another matter.

All the info in the old forum seems to have disappeared, so I was wondering if anyone can say whether the program is made unstable by the bugs or whether there is anywhere better to look for info.

1731

General Software Discussion / Re: GemX - missing in action

« on: June 21, 2008, 03:27 AM »

Fascinating thread. I came here from the new GemX discount thread and was intrigued enough to download and install DO.

From the thread and website, I would have to say that it is looking a bit like endoflife ware trying to wring the last bit of cash out of the embers of their remaining energy. I saw no sign on the website that the current (apparently reduced) prices were a sale or available for a limited period. I did notice that the 60 day trial only licensed it for 6 days; I've sent them an email, and it will be interesting to see if I get a response.

I do have a lot of experience of developers going missing in action (as we all do). Frequently terminally, sometimes in spasms. Seems to happen to payware, shareware and freeware alike. I do have a certain amount of sympathy; overall income is frequently not that great and never guaranteed, real work is needed to keep things going, and when real life (in any form) intrudes it is the program, its support or community that has to give. I assume that it is the desire and hope that things can be got back on track tomorrow/next week and reluctance to accept or make public the truth that causes the lack of communication. I'm not sure that big companies are really any better, and still remember my irritation when Informix abandoned Wingz.

vizacc's comments on libraries etc really reflects my own (indirect) experience. It seems to me that a lot of programmers start to run into a deadend when their programming environment stops developing as needed and they have to spend more and more of their time trying to code around the deficiencies of their environment/libraries. They really need to start again from scratch, but quite a few years have been sunk into what they have, the program has got very complex in its current incarnation, they have lost the initial buzz and energy, real life has reduced the time available and the community is probably bugging them for improvements. I think Tranglos' description of why he stopped with Keynote is a good description of a situation that many developers end up in.

Of the programs mentioned here, quite a long time ago now, it is interesting to see that Nighthawk is still not out, that Helpmaker 8 is still not out (still development in 7.3 though), and that Yagoon Time/Calimanjaro seems to have been endoflife ware for a long time. SQLnotes, of course, proceeds apace.

In this thread, I notice a lot of enthusiasm for DO as a vision and a lot of references to its being buggy and the bugs not being tackled. Most people seemed to be saying that they were moving away from it because of the lack of support or future rather than the bugs though. A few people said they'd keep on using it because it worked well enough and there was nothing else like it. Having a quick look, I can see the attraction. I certainly would not risk long-term data in it, but I can see that it does a lot of things and might help me not have to use Outlook. It would not replace TreeDBnotes or TheBat! or ToDoList, though it might do instead of Calimanjaro. The lack of development does not really bother me if the program works well enough now; I'm quite used to working around bugs (though the loss of the bug reports that must have been available in the Forum is a sacrilege in my view) and despite all the programs I have, I probably don't have a question for support from anyone more than once a year or so.

Of course, I would need more than 6 days to try it out 

1732

Best E-mail Client / Re: Seriously, what is MicroEd good for?

« on: June 19, 2008, 02:46 PM »

Realised I could, but never wanted to. Never thought about it. That's the way some programs work. Not an issue. Never took in the name. I don't tend to pay attention to details like that unless I find it hard to make a program do what I want.

1733

Best E-mail Client / Re: Seriously, what is MicroEd good for?

« on: June 19, 2008, 12:18 PM »

I knew nothing about MicroED. Reading the thread led me to believe it came with The Bat!. When I check The Bat!, I find that I have enabled MicroED and have been using it all the time. Don't think I have ever used any of these specialised functions though. And never had any caret or mouse problems.

1734

General Software Discussion / Re: Do we need a Linux and/or Mac child board?

« on: June 15, 2008, 06:33 AM »

When I switched to Linux last fall, I cut down my visits here quite a bit because there didn't seem to be much interest in Linux around these parts. I still use XP (running in VirtualBox) for a lot of programs, but most of the little utilities I use are now Linux, not Windows and I did not think there would be much interest here in those.

-rssapphire (June 14, 2008, 07:46 PM)

I use Windows and Linux extensively, and it has always seemed to me that there is a general interest in all options on all the OSs. And, from that point of view, I do prefer not splitting into OS specific areas. And an increasing number of utilities are cross platform.

The one possible exception would be software. I think all current software is Windows based - and if there were any for other OSs it would be best in its own area. And the facility for that already seems to exist.

1735

Living Room / Re: ASUS eee PC - Any owner?

« on: June 14, 2008, 05:19 AM »

Yes -- I've been waiting for "version 2" ever since the first eee was released. 

 the market should be overflowing with me-too products any day now, so there's always the outside chance that someone else will come up with something better.

-johnk (March 13, 2008, 06:37 PM)

Eee 901 about to be on sale. And lots of me-too products announced.

I'm really tempted by the idea (in my mind), but I'm not so sure about the actual products. If I am out and about, I'm not likely to want to use it for a long time on any one occasion, but will want to check things and write things quickly. This means that I want:-

• Instant startup (rather like the old Amiga/Atari ST)
  
• Reasonable size screen (ie quite a bit bigger than a PDA) - all these seem to have a big enough screen
  
• Ability to read common document and image formats
  
• A text editor/WP
  
• A keyboard where proper typing is possible
  
• Reasonable communications (ability to network + usb port quite sufficient)
• Cheap (announced price ranges OK)
  

Lots of other stuff would be nice but not essential. Touch screen would be good. I don't care about the OS. It seems to me that the things mostly sell on the form factor and the price and otherwise are just the same as other computers. Its the bootup and load times that are critical for me. I suppose I could cope with 15 seconds; I suppose I could find a small fast loading Linux distro and tweak it for the Eee (though maybe not), but it seems to me that this should really be a simple consumer product that just works - like a mobile phone.

1736

Living Room / Re: Opera 9.5

« on: June 13, 2008, 05:06 AM »

I love this quote from theregister's review - Opera has been racing to release the latest version of its desktop browser. No guesses why. For the first time since 2003, Mozilla's FireFox looks like a modern browser, and not a skinnable memory heap testing tool.

1737

Word Processor Roundup / Re: Textmaker (Softmaker/Ashampoo Office) 2008

« on: June 05, 2008, 01:56 PM »

I have a licence for the suitie already,

-Darwin (June 05, 2008, 01:41 PM)

Of course 

1738

General Software Discussion / Re: SQLNotes...what is it exactly?

« on: June 04, 2008, 01:17 PM »

Rather long and tedious for others here, I thought.

-melitabel (June 04, 2008, 11:11 AM)

Are you sure you have read this thread?
Nothing to do with SQLnotes can be too long or tedious for us. 

1739

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« on: June 04, 2008, 01:11 PM »

My name is Mike and I am a software addict...

I'm running all three on a notebook with a 120GB harddrive..

-Darwin (June 04, 2008, 10:54 AM)

Well, I'm surprised that you can fit all your software into 120GB.

1740

General Software Discussion / Re: Nero Vision replacement

« on: May 31, 2008, 05:17 AM »

Go to http://giveawayoftheday.com. Nearly every other day the offering is a video conversion/authoring program (though not today) - to the extent that many comments are complaints about 'Oh not again ....). Within the comments there is usually an experienced review giving some advantages/disadvantages of the package being offered and alternatives. There are always mentions of free alternatives. And you can always go through previous offerings if you just want to read the comments.

1741

Living Room / Re: flash-card programs to learn a new (human) language. What's the best?

« on: May 29, 2008, 04:54 PM »

Depending on your needs, I think supermemo has some advantages over fullrecall. It will be worth trying both.

Also worth looking at free alternatives such as Anki, Mnemosyne and Teach2000.

1742

Living Room / Re: Shipping outside USA not an option - workaround?

« on: May 29, 2008, 02:29 AM »

The Singapore solution is interesting and reasonably priced. People buy goods themselves, have them shipped within the US to the US address, and all their goods are then aggregated into a single package for shipment to Singapore. In many ways the purpose is the savings made by aggregation rather than getting around limits companies place on shipment overseas. I'm rather surprised that a similar service has not been set up for other countries, especially the UK where a lot of people buy direct from the US - Singapore is quite small though it does have a population of very keen and price aware shoppers.

I also tend to feel that Adobe's policies in this area are so exploitative that they deserve all they get from consumers trying to avoid the exploitation.

1743

Living Room / Re: Digital Camera Help

« on: May 25, 2008, 04:09 AM »

iph: What does the Macro do for me?

-Josh (May 24, 2008, 11:55 PM)

Sorry for not being iph.

Macro lenses are designed purely for closeups and have no zoom (though some zooms do have a macro mode). Usually 1:1 magnification, though can be greater. Depth of field (how much of the subject is in focus) and lighting can be an issue. Compact cameras generally have a good depth of field. The really big issue with closeup photography is keeping the camera steady - most people who do a lot of ebay photos have a stand/tripod set up fairly permanently & light reflectors etc to get optimum lighting. Not so easy to arrange if you are after moving subjects like insects.

1744

Living Room / Re: Digital Camera Help

« on: May 25, 2008, 03:53 AM »

what exactly is SLR, I know the net definition, but in reality what is it?

-Josh (May 24, 2008, 11:55 PM)

As you will know, it is meant to be a camera with a mechanism that allows the photog to see the image through the lens and thereby see exactly the photo that will be taken. Not quite so true any more as manufacturers look to find ways of getting the image to the LCD and the viewfinder.

In practice, SLRs tend to be very configurable and have a wide availability of lenses. Most keen SLR photogs will have spent far more on their lenses than their cameras and it is their lens collection that is their greatest incentive to keep them with one brand. All digital SLRs have very easy to use automatic modes and many users just use these, and many users only have one lens (unfortunately, quality-wise, this is usually the kit lens that came with the camera) so the distinction between SLRs and other cameras is not that clear.

SLRs tend to be bigger than most cameras (and can never really be described as compact) and to be at the upper end of the quality range within a brand. They are almost much more flexible in the ways they can be used with very good quality output - some non-compacts produce very good quality output, but only in good light conditions or particular circumstances.

SLRs also tend to be fast.

1745

Find And Run Robot / Re: LifeHacker vote, stage 2, final voting

« on: May 23, 2008, 07:21 AM »

using the words best, top or sex in any title gets more views see, which is what it is all about for sites trying to become the top best sexy software site

-justice (May 23, 2008, 03:29 AM)

Good point, so maybe a new name for FARR could be Sexylaunch, Toplauncher or Bestrunner? 

-TucknDar (May 23, 2008, 06:55 AM)

Why not go for the jackpot? BestTopSexLauncher. 

1746

Find And Run Robot / Re: LifeHacker vote, stage 2, final voting

« on: May 22, 2008, 10:54 PM »

I think the number of votes for FARR is pretty good, given its lower profile. And the profile should have been raised by being in it. I would have thought that LH readers would get more use out of FARR than Launchy - but what do I know since I use neither regularly?

It's hardly a sensible poll either - after all what do votes for Quicksilver (Mac) and Gnome Do (Linux) actually mean, application or OS?

I'm not voting, though I use RocketDock. I prefer to use a mouse rather than a keyboard and it's the only option I have on the list. AFAIK, the only real alternative is Stardock - so that would be the comparison for me.

As far as I can see, it is a methodology (LH's 5 choice polls) being used to proselitise launcher apps. And without consideration of all the possibilites of using OS features to achieve the same end.

1747

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Giveawayofthe2days

« on: May 22, 2008, 03:10 PM »

I'm not sure that amounts to an explanation.

1748

Found Deals and Discounts / Giveawayofthe2days

« on: May 22, 2008, 12:19 PM »

Giveawayoftheday seems stuck on the same offer as yesterday. Haven't tested if it is still working, but I have noticed that the site seems to be down quite often recently.

Aha, it probably won't be working. Today has turned into an unscheduled maintenance day at GAOTD. Let's hope it deals with the problems they have been having.

1749

General Software Discussion / Re: Mind-Mapping Software

« on: May 18, 2008, 01:38 PM »

It seems as if I should have a look at TS (when I have time to do it justice). The prog it seems most eqivalent to (in my current state of ignorance, and realising that there is a big difference in graphics) is SQLnotes. Both seem to be integrative information managers with good search facilities. I haven't got really into SQLnotes fully yet either, but it is easier to have a look every now and again while it remains free to do so. TS just has a time limited trial.

1750

General Software Discussion / Re: Mind-Mapping Software

« on: May 18, 2008, 10:08 AM »

Thanks for the response Vic (and for your website ).

My own needs would include being able to use Images for nodes, having many different types of link (with different appearances) and having as many links as wanted between as many nodes as needed. The view of Topicscape seems like an army lined up with each officer having their men behind them - and all officers and men looking the same apart from size.

I do see how it can work as an information organiser, though it only seems to offer one simple view at at time.

I'm just disappointed because the list of features seemed good. And intrigued because I wasn't put off by the price - and I had never thought I'd have that level of need for a mind mapper.

Never mind; I'll stick to my current collection of software for info & organisation, wait for SQLnotes to develop further (albeit without the pointy-headed pictures) and see how much I can get out of Cayra for mindmapping type stuff.