Messages

176

Living Room / Re: OneDrive v. Google Drive?

« on: June 06, 2015, 01:59 PM »

It strikes me that if OneDrive has syncing problems, then that's a deal-breaker and one should look elsewhere.

It also strikes me that if GoogleDrive alters files and file formats, then that too is a deal-breaker and one should look elsewhere.

Between, Dropbox, Box, Amazon S3, and a host of other companies out there there should not be too much difficulty finding a suitable replacement for these two broken services.

Having said that, if it were me, I'd explore the possibility of buying a NAS and setting up my one cloud-syncing solution.


As an aside, if someone's of the opinion that Microsoft is not as adept as Google at discontinuing products or services, one is mistaken. As for hardware, does anyone remember the MS Commander game controller? The Microsoft 900 MHz cordless phone? The Zune? And as for software and services, what of Microsoft Streets & Trips? Microsoft Live Spaces? Microsoft Office Accounting? Microsoft Money? Microsoft Media Center and companion extender for the XBox? Don't think for a second that if a big-wig in Redmond thinks OneDrive isn't doing what it should be for the company they won't discontinue it, too.

177

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Atlantis on Bits du Jour 54% off

« on: June 06, 2015, 01:35 PM »

I bought Atlantis a year ago with 70% discount for $ 10 and the offer is still valid:

-Ennovy (June 01, 2015, 12:35 PM)

They do math funny.

178

Living Room / Re: The End of my Macbook Pro Experiment

« on: June 06, 2015, 06:36 AM »

Macs are unique beasts. People talk about the Apple eco-system and how your iPhone, your iPad, your Apple TV, and Mac are all connected as one and work as one. To a large extent that is true, but again....Macs are unique beasts.

Macs (and their OS) do things differently than any other computers on the planet. Some things better and some things worse...even if you run Windows on your Mac using Boot Camp, you'll still be doing some things differently than you would on a 'real' Windows machine.

When it comes to Macs, it really is a case of either you get it or you don't. I don't get how Macs work, have never gotten how Macs work, and will never get how Macs work. Every time I use one I get this claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in a box with arbitrary rules. I'm not in Apple's target demographic, though, and I'm fine with it.

As for quality of hardware, you can find some wonderfully built laptops that can rival a Macbook, but you won't find Dell selling one and you will pay just as much for it as you did that Macbook Pro. They are rare, but they are out there....up to each person to decide if they are worth the price or not.

179

General Software Discussion / Re: FossaMail - brought to you by the makers of Pale Moon

« on: June 06, 2015, 06:24 AM »

I've known about this one for quite a while and I do applaud the Pale Moon author for stepping up and releasing another mail client (there's a shortage of good ones these days). However, I wonder if the world needs another fork of Thunderbird.

Thunderbird is not exactly holding a large market-share and it seems like even Mozilla isn't really sure what to do the project. While I'd love to see FossaMail take off in popularity, I'd love to see Thunderbird take off in popularity even more so.

180

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Project questions

« on: May 27, 2015, 08:34 PM »

Well, I was trying to suggest as much:

-IainB (May 25, 2015, 10:50 PM)

And I was emphatically agreeing with your suggestion.

181

General Software Discussion / Re: WildOpal - hypothetical new idea for a "find and replace" program

« on: May 25, 2015, 10:41 PM »

Oh, in my haste it appears I misread things. Off to download then....nothing to see here.

182

General Software Discussion / Re: WildOpal - hypothetical new idea for a "find and replace" program

« on: May 25, 2015, 02:32 PM »

Expresso is a free alternative.

-wraith808 (May 24, 2015, 12:17 PM)

I had not heard of Expresso. It looked very interesting until I noticed that the last version was released in 2013. That wouldn't be so bad except it's coded to stop working on January 1, 2016.

183

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: AdGuard: the better Ad Muncher?

« on: May 25, 2015, 12:51 PM »

AdGuard is indeed the better Ad Muncher. I will even take it a step further and say that AdGuard is the heir to Ad Muncher's throne. Features that Ad Muncher's author has been promising for years, but never delivering on are in AdGuard today and are working darn well.

AdGuard program development is quite active and it's very easy to access the beta versions to play with new features that are in the pipeline. I bought Ad Muncher waaaay back in the day at a bargain price for a lifetime license and even at its peak, the development cycle wasn't as active as AdGuard's has consistently been.

Privacy concerns for AdGuard that have been mentioned in this thread are valid, but you can turn those features off if you do not wish to use them.

The Man-In-The-Middle 'attack' sure sounds scary, but it is really the only way one can intercept and manipulate HTTPS traffic in order to filter ads from HTTPS traffic. Realistically, though, how much of an 'attack' is it when *you* are the man who is in the middle? However, you can disable the feature for web sites individually or turn the feature off altogether. This is merely an optional feature for those who want to retaliate towards malevolent entitities who think it's funny embedding their advertisements in encrypted web traffic.

Pricing, especially for the lifetime licenses, is at holy-crap-that's-crazy levels if one buys from the AdGuard homepage. Fortunately, BitsDuJour and StackSocial have teamed up to offer a deal for a lifetime license covering 2 PCs + 2 Android devices for $39.00:

https://bitsdujour.s...ifetime-subscription

The offer is set to expire in 10 hours as of this writing, but it's already been renewed on the site at least once. Heck, it may be perpetually renewed ad nauseum into infinity for all I know, but $39.00 is a good deal. Full disclosure, I thought it a good enough deal to buy twice (for 4 PCS + 4 Android devices).

No other ad-blocking solution available today, other than Ad Muncher, will block ads anywhere...even outside one's browsers.

184

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Project questions

« on: May 25, 2015, 12:28 PM »

Yes, yes...on the surface it sounds like a wonderful idea. The unfortunate reality would be that answers would lead to more questions which would lead to even more answers...leading to even more questions.

I could easily see such a side-project dwarfing the entire DonationCoder site as a whole over time.

185

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Contraption Maker is FREE this weekend! (23rd May 2015)

« on: May 23, 2015, 10:06 AM »

On slow connections like mine, the installation procedure is a drag...

-Shades (May 23, 2015, 09:06 AM)

Just for a frame of reference, what is the speed of your 'slow connection'? What one person considers slow another may not.

186

Living Room / Re: HTTPS exploit ready to terrorise

« on: May 23, 2015, 10:04 AM »

The great thing about computers is that as time goes by they get more & more powerful.

The horrible thing about computers is that those more powerful computers make it possible to crack encryption algorithms that were once thought to be impervious to attack.

I'm sure 20 years from now it's most likely that any encryption we're using now will probably be as breakable as WEP encryption is today.

187

General Software Discussion / Re: Panda Free Antivirus 2015 anyone using?

« on: May 23, 2015, 10:00 AM »

I have never used Panda personally. I have known people who have tried it and it always ends badly, often with a need to reinstall their OS.

188

General Software Discussion / Re: Cyberfox 38.01 AMD x64 smooth

« on: May 23, 2015, 09:59 AM »

I played with the latest version of Cyberfox x64 a week or two ago. It was very quick on my i7, although I didn't install all my extensions to see how much speed would suffer.

I'm still debating on whether or not to switch from Pale Moon. Pale Moon's author is very transparent about what differences are between it & Firefox plus there's an excellent support forum. Cyberfox's list of differences is just some vague wording on their home page.

189

General Software Discussion / Re: MS Project questions

« on: May 23, 2015, 09:56 AM »

I applaud Iain's tutoring skills, but I have to re-iterate what he has been stating since his first post in this thread. Microsoft Project is a beast that takes a lot of practice, training, and knowledge to tame. In Microsoft's stable of products, it's only rivaled by Excel as being a program with a simple interface that is a gateway into a world of complex commands, equations, and funky syntax that only be mastered by dedicating a lot of time to master the techniques that will make it bow to your will.

I have college coursework in IT project management and one of our tools was Microsoft Project 2013. We used the bejeezus out of it and I mastered everything we were taught, but I still left knowing there was a lot we had not had time to learn. I felt like we had barely scratched the surface of the power contained within the code.

So, yeah...questions about Microsoft Project posed in a cozy little software forum nestled in a corner of the internet is going to yield some simple, yet effective advice. However, if you are coming into using Microsoft Project cold with no prior learning or training, then a forum thread is not going to lead you to the land of milk & honey.

This endeavor is not something on the level of "Hey, I just bought a second monitor and I need to know how to set things so a different wallpaper is displayed on each one". That the OP states that Project is a badly designed program tells me that he has no prior experience with it or much knowledge regarding it.

Without formal training or at least a how-to-for-dummies book in your toolbox, a dance with Microsoft Project is going to only lead to death, destruction, the wringing of hands, the wailing of women, and the gnashing of teeth. (One or two of these things may not happen.)

Little known fact....the avatar Iain uses is really a picture of him. He's been trapped in that ugly sweater vest since 2008 as the result of a freak Microsoft Project accident. Don't let it happen to you. Respect the code.

190

General Software Discussion / Re: how to delete this empty file?

« on: May 23, 2015, 09:35 AM »

I had something long and technical typed out, but since Curt is scared of computers, let's try something simple first.

Try moving everything except the non-removable file from the FotoTemp directory to somewhere else on your system. Now try deleting the FotoTemp directory. Sometimes this works.

If it does, recreate FotoTemp and move everything back. If it doesn't, come back here & we'll move on to more exciting experiments.

191

Living Room / Re: Rethink Smartwatch

« on: May 22, 2015, 07:42 AM »

Sorry, I'm late to the thread, but Samsung makes close to what the OP wants.

The Gear S:

http://www.samsung.c...oducts?filter=gear-s

Has its own SIM card so it doesn't need to have a phone nearby. You can make/receive calls and text messages. It's basically another stand-alone device on your wireless plan. Battery life is supposedly 1-2 days.

Helpful tip: Probably best if you're sitting down when you price it out.

192

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: 50% off discount for RightNote - 19 May

« on: May 21, 2015, 07:40 AM »

"...and also present and display them to others in a way that makes sense (to others)."

If I could find something that would do that for my organic, physical, literal brain I'd buy it at any price!

193

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Windows Defender (also Microsoft Security Essentials MSE) - Mini-Review

« on: May 17, 2015, 10:09 AM »

With a lifetime key, I am a long time user of Agnitum Outpost Security Suite Pro. But I too have made the swift to MSE ("4.8.204.0" since yesterday) because there is never any fuss, it is always working, and working discretely.
 

-Curt (May 14, 2015, 07:56 AM)

With MSE there is never any fuss because it rarely detects any malware on a person's system...even when you are sitting and watching all your files be deleted. If you want a free alternative to paid solutions, give BitDefender Free a look. It has excellent detection rates & doesn't beat you over the head with advertisements to purchase the pro version.

194

General Software Discussion / Re: Visualize pseudo code via flowcharts?

« on: May 17, 2015, 10:04 AM »

I'll recommend the excellent RAPTOR:

http://raptor.martincarlisle.com/

Minimal UI, but very powerful and will even 'run' your psuedo-program so you can see if the output is what you are expecting. I used it in my college programming courses & it was very useful.

195

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Judy's TenKey (10Key) award-winning calculator

« on: May 16, 2015, 05:04 PM »

@Innuendo : I didn't consider (or claim) my list to be comprehensive at all. However, Wabbitemu is now on my list as I downloaded and installed it just now!

-IainB (May 16, 2015, 02:51 PM)

Oh, I know you didn't claim it, but unfortunately you've built a reputation around here of being thorough and comprehensive so I was a little surprised by the oversight.

My inner geek squealed at turning my Android devices into TI-8x graphing calculators. Yeah, I know. I'm easily amused.

196

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Judy's TenKey (10Key) award-winning calculator

« on: May 16, 2015, 10:35 AM »

Ever since I had to buy my daughter a TI 84+ CSE for school, I have been using Wabbitemu when I need [her to use] a calculator.   (No downloaded TI ROM required, and there's an Android version too!)

And since Lauren has... err... misplaced her calculator, she is now using Wabbitemu on her laptop as well when she has that sort of assignment...

-x16wda (May 11, 2015, 07:16 PM)

Wish I would have had knowledge of this in my college algebra class! And it looks like it will even load modules/programs designed for TI calculators as well.

All versions are freeware so I don't know why IainB left it off his list, though. There's nothing out there like this & it sure beats buying one of those expensive TI calculators.

OpalCalc looks brilliant. I would never use it enough to justify buying it, but I'm glad it's available *and* it is $5 cheaper than the program listed in the OP.

197

Living Room / Re: Http vs Https Universally

« on: May 16, 2015, 10:23 AM »

That's like encrypting all the billboards on the side of the highway so people have to get and be wearing very special - and very expensive - glasses to be able to read your advertisement messages.

-Stoic Joker (May 16, 2015, 07:42 AM)

This is the perfect analogy. Cyber-attacks have a huge presence in the media & the public eye right now. This places them square in the middle of the narrow tunnel vision of CEOs worldwide. Unfortunately, these people have no idea what's involved in competent cyber-security. All they know is that HTTPS keeps their banking and credit card information safe. Therefore.....<wait for it>....if HTTPS is used on every web site than every web site will be safe!!!! Suck on that, ISIS!!!!

I use humor to illustrate a point, but it's a valid point, nonetheless. HTTPS is a very powerful tool and it has many awesome uses, but forcing its implementation on every web site is not an awesome use.

198

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: AdGuard Premium Lifetime on sale at StackSocial.com

« on: May 15, 2015, 12:34 PM »

I decided I needed licenses for two more Android devices. Checked their site & the offer mentioned here cheaper than just buying two Android licenses on their own.

Fortunately, it looks like this offer has been extended....3 days left as of this writing.

199

General Software Discussion / Re: ON/OFF TaskBar button for Automatic log-on and connect to Internet.

« on: May 13, 2015, 07:39 AM »

While 4wd has a very good idea, I'm going to simplify things even more.

Some broadband modems have power buttons. Just turn off the modem when you want to be disconnected from the internet. Failing that, unplug it from the mains. You could also follow this logic for one's router.

If you don't want to go that far, just use the functionality built into the OS you are using to disable the NIC in the PC.

These suggestions are working under the premise you don't have other devices that would want to use the internet connection and/or you wouldn't want network connectivity among other devices in your house.

200

General Software Discussion / Re: uBlock ad blocker and unwanted behavior

« on: May 13, 2015, 07:32 AM »

I understand this.  I just never knew until now that it updated silently and with no notice.  That's the part that is the problem.  Just because you OK an extension once, doesn't mean you should have to sign up in perpetuity.

-wraith808 (May 12, 2015, 07:44 PM)

If you don't want software on your system silently updating without your permission then you should not be using Chrome at all.