Messages

1

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Hard Disk Sentinel PRO - Mini-Review (as at 2012-06-02)

« on: June 30, 2012, 02:00 AM »

One thing that becomes clear reading thro' the above is that most of you have avery good technical grasp of your computers & associated hardware etc.
My objection TO HDSPro is that the process of setting the configuration for your own application is a very significant task & I became weary of all the tech stuff I had to consider just to do a half pie job of configuring.
For example you can arrange an eamail warning to yourself - not a bad idea - but how many of us can quickly do that - not me, it would take me some time to find the relevent info.
I could go on but in truth I have no degree of certainty that what I have done will be effective or at least as effctive as possible - this is not good.
I think a set of default configuration options should be inbuilt to cater for lesser mortals.
Also the above identifies a bug - what's the response from the authors?

2

DcUpdater / Re: DcuHelper.exe v1.10 (7/12/11) - Update checking for your apps (dcupdater compat)

« on: May 15, 2012, 09:51 PM »

Yes I am sure your reply is spot on.
If intended as an "add on updater" for individual custom apps (as might be helpful to professional programmers) - then please just say this & ensure others do not over-hype what you offer.
Too often I find myself reading extensively about new stuff here & becoming totally confused about for whom the program is designed & best suited.
Hope that clears everything up.

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DcUpdater / Re: DcuHelper.exe v1.10 (7/12/11) - Update checking for your apps (dcupdater compat)

« on: May 15, 2012, 02:29 AM »

What a disappointment.
I am begining to expect this from Donation Coder, & DCUpdater is another in a substantial list of hard to use programs with very limited appeal to the novice or intermediate level PC user.
I believe this program is misrepresented - it should clearly state what eventually Mouser does say:
"So probably you want to go find yourself an update checking solution that is self-contained and you probably don't want to use DcUpdater".
Sorry Mouser I know you put the effort in & make your apps freely available but why not do it better, or do something not done by an alternative app.
Tough comment I know, but I have a life, & its May 2012, I want it simple easy, intuitive & robust, without the need to enroll in a help forum. And I don't care much if it's substantial in size. I have a quad core CPU & fast PC to manage such stuff.
.

4

Screenshot Captor / Re: Some help needed with ScreenShotCaptor

« on: March 17, 2012, 07:35 PM »

"You didn't mention the pdf reader installed into Firefox?"

Well in truth I just don't know, & the same applies to Chrome
I searched for a list of Add-0ns installed & I could see no .pdf reader listed.
The reader I have installed in order to open .pdf files is Foxit reader.

"What version of ScreenShotCaptor are you actually using, it sounds as if you have a pre-3.0 version?"
No I stated at the outset that I have SSC-V3 installed.

If there is a bug in SSC I'd suggest it affects both FF & Chrome & it would seem I am not alone encountering user problems.

5

Screenshot Captor / Re: Some help needed with ScreenShotCaptor

« on: March 17, 2012, 01:23 AM »

"Names & numbers"- OK.
Remember that I have already concluded that SC is clearly not suitable for the use to which I intended to apply it.
But if it will help program development, or de-bugging, or simply anyone else having trouble, then I am happy to help.

1.   Go here to see the datasheet (.pdf file) displayed in FF V11.0:
http://www.vishay.co...ocs/57065/533534.pdf
As may be seen, this is a 4 page document, the first half page of which can be viewed on screen, the balance of the doc by scrolling.
2.   To copy & save this in FF, I simply move my cursor towards the bottom of the screen where a print or save option is available. Select save, decide where to save, & save; all done (all 4 pages).
3.   In Chrome V17.0.963.79 m, the same datasheet displays (.pdf file) in nearly the same manner as FF.
4.   To copy & save in Chrome, I move my cursor to the screen bottom right until an options menu appears which includes print & save. Select save, decide where to save, save & all 4 pages are captured.
5.   In both cases the saved file is a .pdf which is what I want.
6.   I explored other save methods in both browsers:
a)   In FF using Fireshot plug-in; which allowed me to save only the visible portion of the doc.
b)   In Chrome using the tool “Save page as” & “Screen Capture option, neither saved anything useful.
c)   In Chrome I used the zoom tool to shrink so that all the first page (plus part of page 2) was visible, then selecting the “Save page as” option successfully saved all 4 pages as a .pfd file.
Note that a similar approach in FF failed because I was unable to use the zoom tool on this display (reasons unknown to me).
d)  In neither browser was I able to directly select a portion of the .pdf file & copy only that portion, so copying say a table from within the doc appears nigh impossible which I guess is why the file was posted in .pdf format.

I recognise that the save methods used for browsers may not be directly relevant to the utility of SC. But as I have said this simple vertical scroll capture should nevertheless be dead simple in SC or there is little purpose in learning how to use it; MHO of course.

On a positive note I was able to use SC to capture a selected portion of the pdf file first page. When saved as a .bmp I expected I would be able to subsequently magnify using a graphics editor, which proved to be the case, but the detail suffered, & was significantly inferior to the image available using the powerful “zoom in” feature of Chrome.

6

Screenshot Captor / Re: Some help needed with ScreenShotCaptor

« on: March 16, 2012, 01:45 AM »

Thanks guys,
It simply does not work as you describe, & yes I have watched the 3 videos. This is not something that is easy to describe. However I used both Chrome & FF in-built features (NOT Screen Capture) to capture the multi-page datasheet which was displaying in both browsers as a pdf file. After a wee bit of trial & error: all done in less than 10 minutes, & I could now do it in a matter of seconds. Very clearly I have been attempting to use an unsuitable program in Screen Capture.
Despite that I have to say SC is so non-intuitive to use, in anything other than an obvious way, that I cannot see why so many rave about it.
With the greatest of respect to the talented author.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor 3 - Window Object and Scrolling Capture Screencast Videos

« on: March 15, 2012, 03:11 AM »

It's hard not to acknowledge the design & dedication that went into this program.
IMHO however, the chances that anyone using the program infrequently, could accomplish a satisfactory result, within modest effort & time constraints is extremely unlikely.
Sure, if you have a need to do this frequently, you might well get close to Mouser's skills, but otherwise forget it.
I quite often wish to copy multi-page datasheets that display on my browser in .pdf; most times only part of the first page is visible so you need to scroll for info.
Copy-paste generally does not work otherwise I would create a new pfd file in Word.
So I generally settle for "copy page", which is a Chrome option that seems to work, although I always end up re-opening to check!
This is at least intuitive.
I hoped Screen Capture would provide a one step alternative but so far no joy.
I can't say (unlike most here) that I found the video easy to follow either, because my V3 does not behave like the video.
This is getting all to hard except for the straightforward applications.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Some help needed with ScreenShotCaptor

« on: March 15, 2012, 02:39 AM »

I am having the exact problem & the answer seems far from intuitive.
Capturing several pages, of say a pdf file, in one action, is surely the object.

So in mt test case; I see most but not all of say page 1, & I know there are 3 pages to this datasheet.
Screen capture is running updated to version 3.
I select: Capture - Grab Object or scrolling window (looks like the most probable course of action).
Then I see a red frame & appear & I am asked to cntrl-click but doing so produces no result.
Not sure exactly where I go/point to cntrl-click.
Would have thought the presence of the material on screen would have been understood by the program to be the target.

So here I am with the most frequent & difficult task, for which I sought out Screen Capture, & I can't make it work.
Surely I don't have to watch an instruction video for something so fundamental?

Help please.

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Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor 3 - Window Object and Scrolling Capture Screencast Videos

« on: February 15, 2012, 09:05 PM »

Great example of first class SW programing.
Though I do not personally have any great need for this, you have to also admire the quality of work & the effort that has gone into the presentation.

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General Software Discussion / Difficulties with JottiQ & Virus Total

« on: June 16, 2011, 02:43 AM »

Hi everyone,

It's been a few years since I first used Jotti & I do not recall ever before using VirusTotal.
Recently I have been concerned about upping my confidence level when scanning.
I use MSSE & Spybot S & D, configured as "always on", & selectively scan with Malwarebytes, Avast, & Superantispyware.
My system is: Win7(64).
I noticed the following problems with both services after downloading & installing JottiQ:
Repeated upload difficulties, "failed to upload", "upload timed out", "server busy" & lengthy queing.
Jotti was particularly slow with poor server availablity.
Each seemed to check the hash of each file & appeared to stop dead if the hash was not found. Now I have no idea why, or how, or if, that should stop a file upload for a AV check. After all I just wish to know if any particular file could be a threat.
Interestingly the files that I could not upload (after many tries) presented no problems to my installed AV
programs.
The whole exercise was very time consuming & unless I can discover how to overcome the above difficulties, both services will effectively be useless to me.
Can anyone help or confirm these are not difficulties unique to my system (or me).
Thanks,
Peter O

11

Living Room / Re: Backup Strategy: "The Threes"

« on: June 13, 2011, 06:13 PM »

Some very comprehensive backup "solutions" here.
I am one of the many who just can't get around to organising backups.
I have maybe 1.25 Tb of video, music, pics & txt docs stored in two internal 1TB HD's & one external (USB) 320Gb HD .
Windows system backups (providing system revision to an earlier time....?) itself continually runs out of space in the 250GB partition assigned.
Everytime I think about an Outlook 2003 email backup I have to figure out how to do it (can't find an automatic procedure that works) so backup is for me something I generally sub consciously avoid because it takes too long & occupies too much space & 1TB HD's still cost around $100 which is not cheap if you need several.
What I do agree with absolutely, is that for people with mission critical installations, you must have a sound regular reliable & TESTED backup routine even if it involves a significant investment. A  quality home fireproof safe well sited (to avoid water incidents) is I think essential.
But there are many options intermediate between mission critical & "family PC" setups.
Good luck to anyone with the time to sort it out.

Peter O

12

General Software Discussion / Re: Partition Alignment increases performance

« on: July 15, 2010, 08:10 PM »

I am not sure I trust Paragon.
I have at least one of their applications which I cannot completely remove.
I am repeatedly pestered by the program residue "would I like to update".
I think the totality of the comments here are a fair indication that this  free "alignment" product is likely to be fragile & may amount to little more than an email harvesting attempt.
I hope I am wrong.