Messages

1

General Software Discussion / Firefox Quantum - I miss my old Speed Dial Add-ons

« on: August 18, 2019, 07:33 PM »

Ever since I upgrade to latest Firefox Quantum (FireFox 68.0.2), my favorite Speed Dial extension has become incompatible!

I really miss it!
1) It can open multiple pages with 1 click on an individual dial
2) I can set different background (wallpaper) on a per Dial Group basic

As at this writing, the few active and hot Speed Dial Add-ons are all downgrades and inefficient... 
Have I missed an Firefox Speed Dial Add-ons that does the above?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: January 09, 2015, 08:56 PM »

plain Jane UI

-MilesAhead (January 04, 2015, 03:32 PM)

Man, my greatest hate on Win8 is the "plain Jane UI". Not only missing Glass, but the plain Jane icons.
I simply don't understand how can an "ugly icon" help in touch-capability?

3

General Software Discussion / Warning: Buying new copy or upgrading to Genie Timeline Pro 2014

« on: January 05, 2015, 11:03 PM »

I code in Visual Foxpro under Win7 x64 and I am a long time user of Genie Timeline program.
There was no problem with previous version of Genie Timeline Pro until I upgrade to Genie Timeline Pro 2014.

I can't save my VFP file if Genie Timeline Pro 2014 put it on its pending queue (about to backup).
Basically it either brutely close my opened VFP file (the one which I have opened and am working on) or make file invisible to VFP (VFP was complaining on missing file).

In brief Genie Timeline Pro 2014 is useless for VFP programmer and I seriously doubt that its serious bug might cause problem far beyond VFP scope, because it seems that the program can't work correctly with the shadow copy mechanism.

The reason why i raise this warning:
1. After several email discussion with their support, my complain was passed to the developement team
2. More than 2 months later, I urge for at least a hotfix, and guess what I got in reply?

The support advise me to buy their other product particularly their Zoolz program which is in no way similar to Genie Timeline Pro 2014

It seems to me there will be no hope at least in the near future and I have to go back to earlier version.

3. Today I saw their Genie Timeline Pro 2014 promotion email, selling it at USD 9.95 instead of its original price USD 59.95

Man, it seems they are hunting one more round for more potential victims...

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General Software Discussion / Re: Is it possible to speed dial group of tabs in Firefox?

« on: April 07, 2014, 09:36 PM »

I think I will put up with the Speed Dial for now, hopefully it will be improved in the future.

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General Software Discussion / Is it possible to speed dial group of tabs in Firefox?

« on: April 04, 2014, 12:21 AM »

Hi,

In Opera, I assign the local address of a saved session (open tabs) to its speed dial slot and I am able to open all tabs as stored in the session by a single click on the speed dial entry.

In Firefox ver 28.0, I have installed the "Speed dial 0.9.6.16" extension, I am aware this add-ons allows user to assign multiple URLs (splited by '|') to a single slot, but I find that extremely troublesome, esapecially when it involves lot of tabs.

So, is it possible to bind a saved session (of opened tabs) to a single speed dial entry in Firefox?

I am also aware that the "Tab Mix Plus" extension has its own session manager, anyone know how and where it stores session of tabs?

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General Software Discussion / Re: I need recommendation on WYSIWYG web page editor

« on: January 10, 2014, 08:32 AM »

Thanks guys! I will check them out.

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General Software Discussion / I need recommendation on WYSIWYG web page editor

« on: January 06, 2014, 08:56 PM »

Hi,

I need to trim quite a number of web pages which I have saved as mht file (by Opera).

1. Most of the time, I want to be able to easily select a single table from a web page, copy it and paste it as a totally new page. I found web page could be quite complicated in term of nesting tables. In this case, my objective is to keep one table (could be deeply nested) which I am interested and remove the rest of the web page contents.

2. I might also need to resize tables on a web page stored as mht.

I need to do the above VISUALly and my intention is to shape them nicely before saving them as my personnel notes and yes, i absolutely don't want to work with codes at all.

So, could anyone recommend a good free WYSIWYG editor? (Or do I really need a WYSIWYG HTML editor? I was thinking if there is sort of browser function that will let me easily mark a deeply nested table content on a web page, then I probably don't need to save the page into mht then work with it...)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Downloading videos from Youtube

« on: December 14, 2013, 02:19 AM »

I have been using Internet Download Manager for quite sometime. It is very good in downloading youtube video, you can easily select the resolution and video format that you prefer (if a video uploaded to youtube have multiple format and resolution).

Most importantly, whenever youtube make changes to its download mechanism, the author of IDM acts very promptly to come up with a new version to take care of youtube changes.

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General Software Discussion / Re: How do I control font size in PDF?

« on: November 16, 2013, 03:13 AM »

My second question: when I create a document with say a font size of 18 (at least that is what the size I prefer while I am in MS Word), but if I then save the document as PDF, I always end up generating a PDF with much smaller font size, at least that is what I can immediately see when I open up the PDF under 100% size (I mean no zooming in or out)

-tslim (November 15, 2013, 08:39 AM)

It's difficult to compare how a file looks in different programmes/formats. The only *real* test of this, is to print out each file - if Word is any good at making PDFs, they should be exactly the same. If not, try a dfferent method of PDF creation.

-tomos (November 15, 2013, 02:40 PM)

Yap, that is why I am looking for recommendation of a good word to pdf conversion utility.
May I ask this, is PDFCreator hyperlink aware?

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General Software Discussion / Re: How do I control font size in PDF?

« on: November 15, 2013, 08:39 AM »

I dont use Word myself, but would have thought that almost any PDF converter/printer would do the job. (The type where you print the file to PDF - the pdf file is then created.)

I use PDFCreator myself - it's got lots of options, but there are a few default choices that would cover almost all eventualities, e.g. for web; printshop (publication); etc. AFAIK all of these options embed the font (by default, only the characters used). A word of warning - it always tries to install unwanted toolbars etc.

I dont quite understand the second question - the size of the font in the display is going to depend on the font size used in your word processor. If it's being displayed @ 100%, I guess the theory is that this would be the size when printed. In my experience this is never quite the case - it possibly depends on the PDF reader and monitor resolution etc etc

-tomos (November 14, 2013, 03:50 PM)

My second question: when I create a document with say a font size of 18 (at least that is what the size I prefer while I am in MS Word), but if I then save the document as PDF, I always end up generating a PDF with much smaller font size, at least that is what I can immediately see when I open up the PDF under 100% size (I mean no zooming in or out)

11

General Software Discussion / How do I control font size in PDF?

« on: November 14, 2013, 01:14 PM »

Hi,

I am not familiar with how fonts are used in a PDF document, but quite often, I do need to convert MS WORD docx documents to PDF (for reading purpose).

I notice that I can save a docx file as a PDF document from MS WORD 2010 and its save option also lets me control how the PDF file is being generated, but it seems that I can't control:

1. The font type in the output PDF
I suppose I can embed the font as used by the source docx file into the PDF, but I just couldn't figure out how to do that?

2. I also don't know how to control the size of a font in PDF when it is being view at 100% document size.

Could anyone recommend a utility, sort of WORD to PDF converter that can do the above mentioned?

I don't mind paying a shareware price (definitely don't want to pay high price like Adobe Acrobat) for it, but I do require the converter program to be hyperlink aware. i.e. it must be aware of hyperlinks in a docx source and make sure they also exist in the output PDF (like what MS WORD save as PDF does)

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Living Room / Re: Anyone from German, I have a question for you.

« on: September 18, 2013, 04:00 PM »

The article is on a Hong Kong newspaper, talk about how harmful pre-school education can be. It starts by stating Germany law prohibit pre-school education and how successful Germany is, in producing talents etc. Sort of by forcing kids to memorize a lot of things in pre-school education we will destroy their creativity and analytic mind.

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Living Room / Re: Anyone from German, I have a question for you.

« on: September 18, 2013, 12:43 PM »

I'm not from here, but I live here. I can tell you:
the normal school-going age is between 6 and 7 years old. It would be unusual for a child to start school at 7 years of age.
I dont know if starting school at a younger age is allowed or not. Probably not - otherwise the ages of the kids would be very varied.

Of course, the norm is to go to kindergarten for years before that.

-tomos (September 18, 2013, 12:05 PM)

I suppose kindergarten is pre-school education. According to the article I have read, it should be forbidden in German. I am keen to know whether what the article says is true.

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Living Room / Anyone from German, I have a question for you.

« on: September 18, 2013, 11:43 AM »

I read an article on newspaper, saying that in German there is law prohibiting pre-school education (education on kids younger than seven), is that true?

15

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for something close to Evernote Ver2.xx

« on: August 10, 2013, 02:42 AM »

I have a quick run through on RightNote, unfortunately, it is quite different from Evernote 2.x

1. It has a tree-structure of folders to hold notes, instead of tag-tree. Evernote 2.xx does not implement folder-tree and tag-tree separately and I find that is much more efficient. To me this is a crucial difference between the two, they have totally different tagging mechanism.

2. Evernote 2.x allow dragging a tag and dropping it on a note to tag it, this is very convenient. RightNote can't do that.

Btw, I have tried (I have even signed up one month Evernote premium account in order to actually try out) the new Evernote and the main reason I gave up Evernote 4.x is, they have basically spoil the best part of Evernote - its tagging system.

New Evernote insists on treating every tag universally, which means a "tag" once defined will appear in all notebook. At first glance, that seems to be nothing a big deal, but once you have more than one content rich notebooks, you will be quickly frustrated by all the nonsense on the tag list... and the new tag listing is so clumsy and hard to use. What a stupid new version!

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General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for something close to Evernote Ver2.xx

« on: August 09, 2013, 10:04 PM »

... could anyone suggest another utility for me to replace Evernote ver 2.xx? ...

-tslim (July 24, 2012, 09:45 PM)

I think RightNote provides all the features you specified, and many more. The Pro version can also sync selected notes to any of your devices via Evernote. http://bauerapps.com/rightnote/  It will be on 50% sale at BitsDuJour sometime soon after August 9, 2013 https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=35733.0

-Scott_Y (August 09, 2013, 01:15 PM)

A big thank to you! I will definitely try it out.

I have just gone through their version compare list... man some features, particularly those Pro version features are too good to be true!

Trying:
Oh dear! I like its search result listing.

17

General Software Discussion / Re: Folder protection

« on: May 13, 2013, 12:29 PM »

tslim: supporting >4gig memory on 32bit XP is, at best, a terrible hack, and it's not something SoftPerfect even attempts. Move to a 64bit OS

-f0dder (May 13, 2013, 11:54 AM)

I don't need it to support > 4GB but it is ridiculous to only allow a ramdisk <= 256MB on WinXP x86.
Btw, I am running Win7x64, my try on SoftPerfect is for helping someone else.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Folder protection

« on: May 10, 2013, 06:01 AM »

In my case, QSoft RamDisk is also stable and working find, except it does not allow multiple ram disk.

I just read through some interesting links regarding ramdisk here, particularly this one and also this one

I have decided to stay at what I am using now.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Folder protection

« on: May 09, 2013, 10:53 AM »

Hi f0dder,

Today I try the SoftPerfect RamDisk recommended by you in your earlier post.
It was a very disappointing experience. I try install on WinXP, guess what it only allow up to 256MB rmadisk (The machine has 8G ram, but obviously WinXP can only make use of 4G)

If I go beyond 256MB, it prompts an error. I run through their forum and it seems a problem to many.

20

General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« on: April 03, 2013, 11:52 AM »

I have firm info from Seagate engineer about their HDD. Unless you go for their high end brand, otherwise you are using sub standard HDD. I only use Western Digital HDD.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« on: April 03, 2013, 08:59 AM »

It takes a long time though. My 400GByte partition (with over 200GByte of free space) on a SATA2 drive took about 8,5 hours to complete (with Minitool partition wizard).

-Shades (April 03, 2013, 08:26 AM)

This can't be true. I have alter size of drives on my 500GB HDD (even on my 1TB HDD), the process normally take about 2 hours.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« on: April 03, 2013, 08:43 AM »

Sorry for dumb q :

Can Min Partition Wizard Home edition be used to align partitions on a disk with XP installed already ? Or align partitions must be done BEFORE install OS/Programs etc ?

Thanks/Ska

-SKA (April 02, 2013, 10:40 PM)

Yes, you can.
e.g. lets say, you have XP on C: and data on D:, just resize a bit C: (say make C: a little bigger and D: smaller or vice versa) and when the program alter the drives, it will always ensure partitions alignment are correct.
Generally speaking only the type of partition matters when doing HDD alignment.

You may also use Acronis Disk Director (latest ver is 11) to do that, but it is not a freeware like the Mini Partition Wizard Home Edition.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« on: April 02, 2013, 11:27 AM »

With regard to alignment when recovering images.
Older versions of both Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image worked the same way, if the partition was aligned when you made the image it usually restored that way, if it was not it didn't.

-pilgrim-online (April 02, 2013, 10:22 AM)

I can't be sure about the above claim because:

1. How an image is created matters. Norton Ghost creates image very differently with different parameters/settings. i.e. disk imaging utility normally won't create byte by byte image unless you specify so.

2. One might restore an image to a new HDD with different capacity. (bigger or smaller or even to SSD).

If a disk utility like Ghost restores an image to a HDD and manage to create all partitions with correct alignment, to me, that simply means the utility knows and have done its part in making sure alignment is right. i.e. it has nothing to do with whether the original HDD (where the image is based on) has all its partitions aligned.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« on: April 01, 2013, 08:49 PM »

As far as I know, the alignment matter is as important in the case of SSD. Misalignment can happen when one does not prepare the SSD with Windows itself during setup. That was exactly my case in the past when I transfer my Windows (originally install on a HDD) via Ghost image to SSD.

-tslim (April 01, 2013, 07:56 PM)

Indeed - you'll want your SSD partitions to be aligned to the SSDs erase-block size - otherwise you'll both lose performance as well as decrease drive lifetime. XP didn't align partitions properly, Vista and upwards should be doing this automatically. For HDDs, I believe alignment only matters if you've got a relatively new drive with 4096-byte sectors?

-f0dder (April 01, 2013, 08:22 PM)

Alignment of HDD matters regardless of the sector size, the bigger the HDD capacity the worse (in term of performance) if a partition is misaligned. I remember I read an article discussing this issue.

However, so far, I have not experienced any HDD misalignment, whether I use a disk utility (e.g. a disk imaging program) or Windows itself to prepare a HDD partition.

I wonder how can HDD misalignment happen?

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General Software Discussion / Re: Registry cleaning software debunked...

« on: April 01, 2013, 07:56 PM »

ERUNT for registry backup is an excellent suggestion. More people should take that to heart. If you really want to speed up your XP/2003 PC, check for partition alignment. Chances are that the partitions on your hard disk aren't. I did do this alignment on my XP PC and it does make a noticeable difference.

Reading and (mainly) writing to an aligned partition can increase the speed of your PC 5-10%. When checking numbers in Process Explorer you do notice that I/O drops (duh!) but also that you lose a lot less of resources on interrupts. Because of the drop in I/O you will also expand the longevity of your (SATA) hard disk as a bonus.

Best of all, with a free tool like 'Minitool partition wizard' you can do the alignment. There are a lot more Partition managers who offer the similar functionality. 'Minitool partition wizard' is just the software that I used for this.

Of course, when compared with an SSD it hardly makes a difference, but for the ones without the funds, alignment does make working just a bit longer with the 'old clunker' more bearable...and will leave more time to save for the real speed upgrade  

-Shades (April 01, 2013, 05:27 PM)

As far as I know, the alignment matter is as important in the case of SSD. Misalignment can happen when one does not prepare the SSD with Windows itself during setup. That was exactly my case in the past when I transfer my Windows (originally install on a HDD) via Ghost image to SSD.

Btw, I use MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition to help me align my SSD (after transfer) and AS SSD Benchmark to verify whether my SSD is aligned correctly.