Messages

1

General Software Discussion / Re: some useful but less-known software. share your list!!!

« on: May 10, 2020, 12:53 AM »

Definitely Spacemonger

Great tool to find files, see what is taking space on your hard drive and clean up your hard drive.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Sync Laptop & Desktop

« on: September 19, 2016, 08:39 AM »

Hi ppass,

I do have Syncback (and have had for quite some time) on my Laptop and I understand what you're saying but how do I connect it to the Desktop as well as the Laptop?  There is only one Ethernet socket on the external HDD.  The only way I can think of is via Wifi??  I have just realised.....  My two machines are linked via my wifi so if I search for the Desktop files via my Laptop to select the Desktop files to backup and then select the same file in my Syncback files on my HDD......  Is that what you mean?   

Cheers,
Keith

-keithy397 (September 19, 2016, 07:17 AM)

You can use a portable device like an external hard disk to do the go-between. You Sync your desktop to the USB hard disk, then sync the USB hard disk to the laptop. Or you can just use the desktop and the USB hard disk and plug the USB hard disk to your laptop when you need to work on the data, without having to actually write the data to the laptop.

If your laptop and desktop are on the same LAN, and you have admin rights, you can share a folder to make it visible on the network and you can map a network drive, then put the proper source / destination in the smart sync profile. I have not tested it but it should work.

More advanced features of SyncBack Pro enable you to sync to the cloud (SharePoint / OneDrive for example) both ways (with your Laptop and your desktop).

3

General Software Discussion / Re: Sync Laptop & Desktop

« on: September 19, 2016, 02:43 AM »

Syncback

-Carol Haynes (February 02, 2016, 08:56 PM)

Definitely a very good option. In Syncback, just create a sync profile. It works both ways (a file added / modified on your laptop will become added/modified on your desktop and vice versa).

Be careful not to modify the same file both on the laptop and desktop at the same time, otherwise there will be a conflict (SynBack Pro will ask you which version of the file you want to keep). This is not a cloud solution, no need for an Internet connection.

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Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: orbit downloader 1.0-the fastest free download manager.

« on: August 29, 2013, 08:18 AM »

It is my duty to revive this old topic. CAUTION!!! STAY AWAY FROM ORBIT DOWNLOADER.

As posted in another thread, when my trial version of NetTransport expired about 6 months ago, I looked for free alternatives. Orbit Downloader was the Download Manager that came forward, and seemed to do the job in the first days. Why pay for something when I can get something similar for free? or so I thought.

After a few weeks, I could not control Orbit Downloader. Every link I clicked in my browser opened an Orbit pop up and a few seconds later, my entire ADSL connection was down. I regularly got choppy phone calls with my IP phone, my ADSL line went down at random intervals. This was a nightmare.

I even had a technician from my ISP company come into my house and trouble shoot my internet connection for 3 hours. He could not find anything wrong with the connection. The fact is that Orbit Downloaded was launching DoS attacks from my laptop and my ADSL router shut itself down in protection.

I then removed Orbit Downloader, tried to clean as much of the registry as possible. I still get intermitted ADSL cuts which might still be caused by some infection I got from Orbit, who knows?

The best decision I made was to purchase NetTransport. I am not a big fan of spending money on software, but this is one of the 2 pieces of software that I actually bought (Microsoft Windows / Office apart). The other one is SpaceMonger, a fantastic visualizer of the files on my hard drive.

Removing Orbit Downloader and purchasing NetTransport has been worth every penny of my $29.95 investment.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Download management software Orbit Downloader may have malicious code/intentions

« on: August 29, 2013, 06:11 AM »

Absolutely agree. When my trial version of NetTransport expired, I looked for free alternatives. Orbit Downloader was the Download Manager that came forward, and seemed to do the job in the first days. Why pay for something when I can get something similar for free? or so I thought.

After a few weeks, I could not control Orbit Downloader. Every link I clicked in my browser opened an Orbit pop up and a few seconds later, my entire ADSL connection was down. I regularly got choppy phone calls with my IP phone, my ADSL line went down at random intervals. This was a nightmare.

I even had a technician from my ISP company come into my house and trouble shoot my internet connection for 3 hours. He could not find anything wrong with the connection. The fact is that Orbit Downloaded was launching DoS attacks from my laptop and my ADSL router shut itself down in protection.

I then removed Orbit Downloader, tried to clean as much of the registry as possible. I still get intermitted ADSL cuts which might still be caused by some infection I got from Orbit, who knows?

The best decision I made was to purchase NetTransport. I am not a big fan of spending money on software, but this is one of the 2 pieces of software that I actually bought (Microsoft Windows / Office apart). The other one is SpaceMonger, a fantastic visualizer of the files on my hard drive.

Removing Orbit Downloader and purchasing NetTransport has been worth every penny of my $29.95 investment.

6

General Software Discussion / Re: uTorrent alternatives?

« on: April 02, 2012, 11:30 PM »

Try the Opera browser or NetTransport.

7

General Software Discussion / Re: Good Multi-account (GMAIL included) email notifier

« on: April 02, 2012, 11:21 PM »

Try webmail notifier, an excellent Firefox add-on. FF can run in the background and you still get notified.

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General Software Discussion / Re: ZOOM setting reminder ?

« on: February 17, 2012, 11:33 AM »

Although your question was for IE, FF+NoSquint is an obvious choice.

You may also consider automatically removing a page's useless stuff like ads / banners and displaying the text in the font of your choice. Use www.readability.com for that.

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Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Share your mouse and keyboard with multiple Mac or Windows computers

« on: September 28, 2011, 12:45 PM »

Could someone tell me if any of these programs works with 2 computers on different LANs? (same question as in my previous post)

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Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Share your mouse and keyboard with multiple Mac or Windows computers

« on: September 26, 2011, 12:43 PM »

Synergy seems to be a dormant project for some time, it is good to come up with alternatives.

I work at home on 2 different networks: 1 my home ADSL, the other one my company LAN network (through VPN). The limitation of Synergy is that both computers have to be on the same LAN, so I cannot use the mouse of my comptuer on my company LAN to control my computer on my house ADSL LAN.

Is this also the assumption with the likes of inputdirector, "mouse without borders", "share mouse" or is any of these able to re-use the mouse & keyboard of a computer on a LAN network to control a computer on a different LAN?

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General Software Discussion / Re: How do you organize/access tiny portable utilities?

« on: September 26, 2011, 12:31 PM »

I use this http://www.pegtop.de/start/

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Coding Snacks / Re: IDEA: Mute sound from all windows/applications except Whitelisted

« on: August 24, 2011, 01:39 AM »

Found it, thanks. However, there is no sound control for IE, Firefox, etc.

13

Coding Snacks / app-specific volume control in Windows 7?

« on: August 22, 2011, 02:27 AM »

I used to play around with Indie Volume in XP and it had several issues. I reported them all to the developer, but he was slow in improving the software, so I gave up using it.

As far as I know, app-specific volume control is built into Vista and above.

-skwire (August 06, 2011, 09:54 AM)

Where is this sound control? In the Windows 7 control panel, there is something called "Manage audio devices". On the tab called "Communications", "Windows can automatically adjust the volume of different sounds when using the PC to place or receive telephone calls". Other than that, I see no setting for the volume per application.

I also have a "smartaudio" icon in the control panel but it does not give me the choice to select the audio level per application.

Could someone help me find the app-specific volume controls in Windows 7?

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General Software Discussion / Re: PDF to Word converter comparison

« on: June 14, 2011, 01:05 AM »

Any free software doing pdf to ppt / pdf to powerpoint?

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

« on: June 14, 2011, 12:58 AM »

SyncBackSE is an excellent backup software, worth paying for. It has a nice incremental backup mode and supports versioning (keep x versions of modified files).

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Living Room / Re: Where have all the trackballs gone!

« on: November 03, 2010, 12:42 PM »

That said, Logitech has a new trackball available for pre-order which has stuff in logical places. I, for one, cannot wait for this device!

Logitech Wireless Trackball M570

Thoughts?

-Josh (September 22, 2010, 07:51 PM)

Pros

* Looks nice and practical

* Long battery life


Cons

* too big to easily carry in a laptop bag

* requires a proprietary USB dongle, you cannot use your bluetooth connection, so this kind of kills on the purposes of a wireless mouse which is to free-up a USB port.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Backup/Syncing performance -- a few software compared

« on: November 03, 2010, 12:05 PM »

If the option is not there in SyncBackSE, then have you asked for it in their forums? I don't see no technical reason why file rename detection is present for syncs and not backups. If you can make your case in the forums, they'll include it.

I am satisfied with file rename detection in SyncBackSE.

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Living Room / Re: Search for images by sample image, rather than keyword

« on: November 03, 2010, 06:02 AM »

At the turn of the century, this was a basic feature in Alta Vista image search. It was extremely powerful. They switched it off after a few years, I still don't understand why.

19

Living Room / Re: Was Stuxnet Worm Built to Attack Iran's Nuclear Program?

« on: November 03, 2010, 05:55 AM »

Excellent webinar last week on the subject:

http://www.norman.co...ebcasts/101374/en-uk

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General Software Discussion / Re: Backup/Syncing performance -- a few software compared

« on: November 03, 2010, 05:53 AM »

- SyncBack is good, but lacks 2 very important features IMO : awareness of file/folder renaming/moving and delta copying.

-Armando (October 15, 2010, 06:18 PM)

Not true. These options are available, but hard to find!

21

Living Room / Re: Where have all the trackballs gone!

« on: November 03, 2010, 05:41 AM »

I have been using a Microsoft trackball for 3-4 years. The concept is very good as I don't have much desk space to move the mouse around.

However, the major drawback is mechanical. The ball touches the mouse body in 3 points. The dust tends to stack around these points. So I have to clean the mouse around these points every other day. The drawback is that when dust gathers, the resistance increases and the mouse pointer moves very slowly.

I would say life span for mouses based on this technology is 3-4 years.

22

Living Room / Re: Would someone mind recommending a good laser printer?

« on: November 03, 2010, 05:35 AM »

Keep away from Samsung. I bought the 350N (color laser). Their customer service is terrible. The technician came 6 times into my house to try to repair it. Total waste of time on calls to the customer service center. I won't buy anything from Samsung anymore.

23

Living Room / Re: Looking for a Decent Contacts Manager

« on: July 15, 2010, 09:46 AM »

I looked for a good contact manager software to use in my job hunt. I wanted to track whom I had met, store notes of our meetings, track thank-you notes, emails, etc. I could not find a decent contact manager program, so I turned to CRM. I use vtiger (open source CRM uploaded to my server, so that I can access it from any PC, lots of other useful features like webmail integration). I am very pleased with it and hardly goes a day without my using it.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox Add-on: SiteDelta

« on: July 15, 2010, 09:40 AM »

I use the software website watcher, which is dedicated to finding changes in web pages. I will give this FF extension a try and see how they compare.

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Living Room / Re: Two computers - one set of secreens etc. Ideas?

« on: June 11, 2010, 04:08 AM »

Use a KVM switch + Synergy.