Messages

2376

General Software Discussion / Re: Seeking opinions about combination antivirus/firewall products

« on: August 23, 2007, 04:35 PM »

Hi Lusher! I don't know if you were officially welcomed to the forum... If not : Welcome! 

I read a lot of stuff at Wilders Security and CastleCops, but I'm obviously not a software security specialist and... I don't know if anybody here is  a member in these forums. Maybe someone will dare to speak up and show his/her pretty face?  Anybody?

2377

General Software Discussion / Re: imaging & partitioning queries

« on: August 23, 2007, 04:20 PM »

I used that [sorry! EDIT: Parted Magic] for the partitioning
with the help of this tutorial
it was very easy

-tomos (August 23, 2007, 08:27 AM)

Thanks for the feedback tomos! It's good to know.
Good luck with the other part of the process... It shouldn't be that hard, really. It should be as easy.

2378

General Software Discussion / Re: Seeking opinions about combination antivirus/firewall products

« on: August 23, 2007, 12:45 AM »

PS. for those interested, here's a link to the "not that interesting" conclusion of my anti-virus and firewall experiment (in the context of carol's problems with outpost...  ) : https://www.donation...79.msg73102#msg73102

Who knows...

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Living Room / Re: Outpost - why do I bother ... or am I just paranoid!

« on: August 22, 2007, 08:34 PM »

Hi carol! I haven't tryed PCTools, but I can share my experience with firewalls and antiviruses.

Like ken, I've been looking for a antivirus/firewall solution (see Seeking opinions about combination antivirus/firewall products) and after trying Outpost, Kaspersky and others, I've decided to come back to my beloved NOD32 and, finally... Comodo. I dismissed it at first, but Comodo is okay, and certainly has a good reputation for outbound filtering and leaking prevention.
One problem I had (and still have — but it’s now under control) with Comodo is with the "dll injections" monitoring. This has caused my CPU to go a bit crazy... so I've disabled the feature for now. Seems like an ok compromise because NOD32 already does great job at detecting suspicious activity.

One other small annoyance happens when I update software (usually FARR, these days...  ). It will NOT register and remember the permission i give to specific child applications. The cure is only to shut down the applications that were affected by the updated parent (farr…) application (updating farr will affect all the permissions for the applications it opens). I don't know if I'm expressing myself properly -- English is hard tonight, don't know why...

All in all, it's probably the best firewall I've had... Especially that it's free!

2380

Living Room / Re: How do you organise your 'My Documents' folder

« on: August 22, 2007, 08:03 PM »

The problem with having files all jumbled up and relying on searches is that it you have to remember what something is called -- or that it even exists -- to search for it.  

-momonan (August 22, 2007, 07:03 PM)

I find that this is always the case anyways, even with folders. If you don't really know what you're looking for, it will be hard to find or even to know that it exists (especially with 1000s of files). But if you use well thought off file names, this is not really a problem anymore.

One usually remembers at least one parameter: the date, the author (or company, etc.), the title, the document type (book, article, magazine...), the theme (or category, tag, etc.), the file type (pdf, txt, etc.), etc. After, it's just a matter of slowly filtering the results, adding new search parameters on the fly.

It’s perfectly possible to "file" stuff without using folders. One just need to have a category system built in the filenames themselves, a system that's coherent and kept up to date (something one can achieve without any problem using a script -- AHK or whatever). It's more flexible than using folders, since with that technique, a document can belong to many categories at once (the only limit is the filename’s length — this IS a disadvantage, but not a big one IMO).

Doing this allows me to get a visual picture.  So, opening the "lectures" folder lets me view at a glance all the lectures I have given.  I can then dig into any one to see if there is something I can use for the next one, etc.

This is a very important aspect… the visual one.  One great thing with X1 in particular, is that one can save searches as folders. I rely on this feature a lot; I love it since it allows me to create multiple views on any given subject and save them for reference…

TucknDar mentioned tag2find... It's a nice software and it might complement my current organizational system once it’s mature enough. It already works pretty well, but I found that putting tags in filenames allows for much more powerful searches.


PS. Sorry Lashiec... i posted right after you posted your question

2381

General Software Discussion / Re: Why don't all software files go into a single directory?

« on: August 22, 2007, 04:23 PM »

The reason to use the registry/Documents and Settings is for several apps to share data.

-jgpaiva (August 22, 2007, 04:10 PM)

If the registry was only used for that end, it would be fine. But it's often used to store all kinds of settings that aren'T always easily found, extracted or restored. That might be a bt off topic though...

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General Software Discussion / Re: Why don't all software files go into a single directory?

« on: August 22, 2007, 01:26 PM »

"Amen" here too, I must say...
IMO, most apps should be portable.

2383

General Software Discussion / Re: Why don't all software files go into a single directory?

« on: August 22, 2007, 12:43 PM »

Just as a quick note : these questions seem somewhat related (but not completely...) to the User settings storage debate

2384

Living Room / Re: How do you organise your 'My Documents' folder

« on: August 22, 2007, 12:35 PM »

groups of words are probably more common between your research documents then between your research document and your electricity bills?

-justice (August 22, 2007, 11:05 AM)

Yes, exactly. That's what I call "gross classification".

Yeah it won't be easy at all.

-justice (August 22, 2007, 11:05 AM)

But an incredible challenge as an AI type project...

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Living Room / Re: How do you organise your 'My Documents' folder

« on: August 22, 2007, 10:28 AM »

Based on the content of these documents.

-justice (August 22, 2007, 06:18 AM)

IMO, maybe not impossible, but incredibly difficult.

Such an organization filter might be efficient at a first "gross" classification (sending the right file types to the right folders, etc.), but I'd be surprised if it could do much more. I don't see, for example, how such software could guess which documents are linked to a complex research project... There’s no way! One would probably end up reclassifying what's been automatically classified (that’s pretty much what happens with my EverNote database).

2386

Living Room / Re: Bugs of collective intelligence: why the best ideas aren’t selected? Blog Essay

« on: August 22, 2007, 10:10 AM »

It's a very important and fascinating subject (and Matthew E. May's experiment is tragically revealing...). Thanks for sharing!

2387

Living Room / Re: How do you organise your 'My Documents' folder

« on: August 21, 2007, 11:56 PM »

I too have a partition for data.... who wouldn'T? (edit : precisions : "My documents" redirects to E: which contains "my pictures", "my music", etc.)

So, following MS "suggestions" I tend to first organize my data by medium (but not by extension… because, for example, a picture is a picture, regardless of its format -- jpg, gif, bmp, etc.), using of course some “preconceived” folders (mymusic, mypictures, mywhatever…). But that’s mostly for backup convenience : because of the generally big size of multimedia and music/sound files, and  because I use a laptop, I tend to archive these on an external hard drive — it’s a bit easier to do so if files are grouped by medium.

Past the gross “medium filter”, I use folders pretty loosely… I will create folders sometimes just to have a better view of what I'm working at, but will often dissolve these once the job is done. (Applications are different case altogether and are dealt with differently: for example, I strictly adhere to the rule of having one folder for each downloaded application)

My main organizational weapon is not based on folders though, but on a strict naming system (now powered by AHK…) which separates filenames into different information fields (I don’t use the file'S metadata fields or any tagging software for many different reasons, two of them being reliability and coherence). Using that strategy has several advantages, and almost no disadvantages. The main advantages are that files can 1-belong to many categories at once; 2-be found with Farr, X1, in a flash 3-be reorganized easily with BRU or Flash Renamer. (And I do have a lot of stuff, like most researchers — about 20 000 textual files; of course I’m not taking into account other media). The main disadvantages are that 1-you have to be comfortable with abstract structures; 2- filenames can get rather long (one has to be careful…)

In the end I guess that one could say that my data is pretty much… "all piled into one folder" (but one folder per medium) and that... I allow "file search programs to locate stuff"! Yes, I admit: I've become pretty dependent on file search programs, but that's because I have the feeling they won't disappear anytime soon...

One last thing, maybe… IME many aspects of organization can be automated, but, obviously, not everything can. It takes some discipline and effort to remain in control of your data: nothing replaces your judgment when it comes to finely categorized info.

2388

Finished Programs / Re: PutAside: declutter and cycle through windows

« on: August 20, 2007, 03:11 PM »

I'm a bit late here but... I really like it Justice.  Great Idea, and a much much better implementation than the other "minimizing to the taskbar" (or event to the tray) solutions. I like the fact that I can use alt tab to cycle through a few important windows, and still EASILY access the others use Shift+Scroll Lk to access the other secondary ones. Cool! 

PS. I'm wondering if transforming it into a full fledged alt tab (errr...it would be a "shift+Scroll"!) would make it even more usefull : one would be able see all the  icons/titles of the hidden windows at once, and cycling through them would be easier, maybe? instead of directly cycling through the opened windows one after the other....??? Dunno...

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Living Room / Re: KenR's health and situation

« on: August 20, 2007, 02:46 PM »

My surgery isn't tomorrow

-KenR (August 20, 2007, 01:41 PM)

Are you sure? 

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Living Room / Re: PC Upgrade - still possible to reuse old components?

« on: August 20, 2007, 02:45 PM »

If your worried about recycling and/or loosing your investment, you could sell your old RAM through ebay. It's amazing but there are buyers  for anything.

2391

General Software Discussion / Re: Ideamason on special

« on: August 19, 2007, 10:00 PM »

Some quick thoughts : one thing that definitely attracts me to IdeaMason is the apparent tight integration between the different elements/parts/data often involved in a research/publishing process. My current system works well, but I sometimes have the uneasy feeling that everything is scattered all over the place... Which is not exactly true, of course  ... it's been designed that way, but I'd need a more efficient index/TOC able to encompass everything in my research projets-- IdeaMason might be able to do that. Maybe.

One aspect that bugged me when I tried it (and it's always the same thing, regardless of the software -- myBase, Ultra Recall, EverNote, Surfulater, whatever) is the fact that when you link documents to the main database, links remain fragile and will be broken as soon as pathnames change.

Obviously, maybe...  But I'm amazed that no software in that "genre" seems to be able to cope graciously with this unavoidable and very problematic problem (especially when you have 100s of files and references that have been or could be renamed, moved or whatever). (The only software I know that will keep track of path changes -- in a completely different class of software though-- is tag2find ; there might be others.... )

Another aspect of IdeaMason that I'd potentially dislike is its "rigidity". By that, I mean that some features do not seem to be easily customizable. (What example could I give... ?? well, if I wanted to create an extra tab for another important category, or create an extra type of "material", etc., it doesn't seem to be possible... I think... but that's with most software, of course : nearly all of them are rigid. But, unfortunately, in that "genre", I find that flexibility extremely important ; everybody works a bit differently so the software needs to adapt to that reality. No?)

Anyhow : I WILL have to eventually (re)consider IdeaMason more carefully...

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General Software Discussion / Re: CPU Usage shoots up to 100% !?!

« on: August 19, 2007, 06:40 PM »

Many years ago, I had to work with a 3d app (poser) that forced the CPU usage to 100%... And guess what? CpuIdle did the trick too. It reduced the CPU usage to the minimum, without slowing down anything. Go figure. 

PS. And it wasn't some kind of  cheap "trick"... Let me tell you, the PC temperature dropped dramatically... No more fan sounding like the computer was going to take off.

2393

General Software Discussion / Re: Ideamason on special

« on: August 19, 2007, 06:01 PM »

Thanks for the feedback Grorgy!

I wonder: what do you find you're "achieving better" (or could achieve better) with IdeaMason than your previous (or current) software setting/system?

Thanks!

2394

General Software Discussion / Re: Problem with outlook 2003

« on: August 18, 2007, 10:51 PM »

weird. I might not be a "file types" problem, but maybe it is...
I don't know if this is a stupid suggestion, but maybe you could try to check the settings for the outlook items in "folder options".

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General Software Discussion / Re: Ideamason on special

« on: August 18, 2007, 01:26 PM »

Grorgy, you seem to really like this program (I've seen it's in your top 3...).

Have you found anything you especially don't like after these 4-5 months of usage? Any criticism?

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General Software Discussion / Re: imaging & partitioning queries

« on: August 17, 2007, 07:09 PM »

BYW, there's also this free imaging utility, Self Image.


Restoring an image with it from a boot CD can be a bit more tricky though. You'd have to use BartPE or the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows .

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Living Room / Re: New Translation of Teh Bible found!

« on: August 17, 2007, 02:51 PM »

clck here --->

2398

Living Room / Serious stuff

« on: August 17, 2007, 02:49 PM »

You should post about those two links in the Living Room, Armando. They're seriously something </offtopic>

-Lashiec (August 17, 2007, 01:17 PM)

OK, so here (where they're less off topic):

YES AND I MIGHT HAEV 2!1!1!111 LOL TAHTS Y IMM TRYNG ANGLISH-2-12-YEAR-OLD-AOLAR TRANSLA2R AND HAVNG A LOK AT TEH LOLCAT BIBLA TRANSLATION!!1!!1!11 OMG LOL D3AR!!!111! LOL 

Ok...enough!

edit : Definitely, wrong topic...
Sorry, I got carried away. 

-Armando (August 17, 2007, 10:06 AM)

I owe these serious discoveries to housetier (OMG WTF LOL INTERN3T SI A FUNY PLAEC) with his New Translation of Teh Bible found!.

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General Software Discussion / Re: imaging & partitioning queries

« on: August 17, 2007, 10:48 AM »

Exactly! Thanks Carol!

The partitionning software is mostly convenient if you later want to resize, convert, etc., if you want to manage other filesystems, install other OSs (that can get a bit more complicated though, with Grub problems...), etc.

i'd just like to add that IMHO, when you'll have installed Windows with all the drivers for your peripherals, etc., and maybe a few essential software, you (should?) definitely install Acronis 7, create a boot CD and then make an image of your initial set up. So, if anything bad happens when installing all the other stuff, you'll be able to easily revert back to that initial working configuration. (When I set up a new system, I create several images during the process, every couple hours or so. It's a bit time consuming but it will be faster to get back on your feet something "bad" happens!)

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: xplorer², a powerful windows file manager and explorer replacement / alternative

« on: August 17, 2007, 10:06 AM »

YES AND I MIGHT HAEV 2!1!1!111 LOL TAHTS Y IMM TRYNG ANGLISH-2-12-YEAR-OLD-AOLAR TRANSLA2R AND HAVNG A LOK AT TEH LOLCAT BIBLA TRANSLATION!!1!!1!11 OMG LOL D3AR!!!111! LOL 

Ok...enough!

edit : Definitely, wrong topic...
Sorry, I got carried away.