Messages

126

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 27, 2005, 10:28 AM »

Seems like another arbitrary distinction to me.  Paint Shop Pro is pretty popular too, I think, so why not act on PSP file viewing capabilities, instead or also?

But my real reacion is: What user who uses Photoshop heavily will need to read this review anyway?

127

Best Weather Monitor Tool / Re: some comments after using some of the programs

« on: June 26, 2005, 06:29 PM »

This is bad enough for me:

If you have chosen to install the WeatherBug Browser Bar

...

The Software, in the course of processing a given search query, sends a request to our servers. This request includes the keyword query, time of day, browser type, default language setting, IP address, an anonymous unique ID, and a code which identifies the distribution source of the Software used by you to conduct your search.

http://www.weatherbu.../aws/termsOfUse.html

128

Living Room / Re: Software Listing Sites - Hall of Fame vs. Hall of Shame

« on: June 26, 2005, 05:13 PM »

FileForum sucks.  Anyone can update a program on that site.  You could post a phony update to a well-known program, with a plausible-but-fake list of changes, and they'd post it within minutes or hours.  I'm tempted to do it just to prove a point.  ("Hey, Process Tamer now has an egg timer built in?  Cool.")

129

Best Weather Monitor Tool / Re: some comments after using some of the programs

« on: June 26, 2005, 05:10 PM »

Some people swear that WeatherBug is spyware.  I know that claim is made a lot of the time when it's total bullshit (because people are idiots), but I can't say one way or the other, from experience.

130

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com Mascot needed

« on: June 26, 2005, 05:02 PM »

I have the artistic skills of Hellen Keller, but if I had a lick of talent, I'd make a mascot who was a bum in front of a keyboard and monitor, holding out his hat begging for pocket change.  [evil laugh].

131

Living Room / Re: What Programs Run In Your System Tray?

« on: June 24, 2005, 05:10 PM »

I'll make it easier to list my stuff by just saying:

Everything except anything with "Norton" in its name.

132

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 24, 2005, 10:33 AM »

I know.  I think it's bullshit.  I've had thoughts of typing the message "Hello, <expletives>!" in that file, then setting it read-only.

133

General Software Discussion / Re: control startup program times

« on: June 24, 2005, 01:16 AM »

Here is the format for a startup command script I just came up with.  The idea is that it runs a countdown (of whatever length you specify), and shows you the numbers as it's counting down.  If you happen to be at the computer during startup, you can close the command window and prevent the startup applications from running.

The script relies on the NirSoft NirCmd utility.  I didn't bother commenting it, because it's so simple.  I guess it's worth pointing out a few things, though:

* All those blank lines are there on purpose; I just like to get the stuff that won't ever be changed out of my face.

* You can change "set Counter=30" to however long you want the countdown to be.  (Set it to something like 600 when you first set up the script, to give yourself time to change the properties of the command window.  It looks better if it's just big enough to fit the text.  )

* You can change any individual "nircmd wait 1000" line to alter the delay (if any) before a startup application runs.

* The double colons (i.e. "::") really do work to comment out a line.  I use it instead of "rem " because it's easier and looks better.

* You can use "nircmd execmd" in a command line if you will be launching a batch file.  It will run just the same as if you run it normally, but NirCmd (with the execmd parameter) causes the command window to be hidden.

* You can, of course, use START command parameters like "/min" (to start the window minimized), "/low" or "/high" (to alter priority), and so on.  Just one nice benefit of using the command interface.

134

Living Room / Re: Scott Hanselman's 2005 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List

« on: June 23, 2005, 06:35 PM »

Never mind the article; I think mouser should put up a pic of himself on every page of this site like that guy does. 

135

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 23, 2005, 05:57 PM »

 
UsageTrack.txt won't appear unless you have the aforementioned setting enabled.

Just rebuild the database and exclude what you want, then leave alone, and you should be fine.  Be happy you're using build 102; the previous build had a problem where the names of all directories and files you navigated to got shoved in the database, even if they were excluded.  I had to scream pretty loud to get that fixed.
 

136

General Software Discussion / Re: control startup program times

« on: June 23, 2005, 03:22 PM »

I use a command script and a command-line "sleep" utility to accomplish the same thing.

137

General Software Discussion / Re: Free paint program for kids

« on: June 23, 2005, 03:18 PM »

Thanks for pointing out Tux Paint!  I think I've heard of it before, but for some reason never bothered installing it.  My daughter enjoys it, so how can I complain?

I learned quickly that it really is necessary to run it in full-screen mode.  And it saves files as PNG, which is cool.  I recommend downloading the "rubber stamps" too.  Good stuff.

138

Finished Programs / Re: IDEA: Automatic Copy when highlighted

« on: June 23, 2005, 01:21 PM »

Yo a e
Yo a e
 e

I found the mising letters.

139

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 22, 2005, 08:42 PM »

With acdsee 7.0 I've tried excluding the root of each hard drive (and subfolders) from being thumbnailed but that doesn't work. You have to exclude the folders below the root or they disappear upon restart . In fact, being unable to switch the thumbnail/database thing off really is annoying.

-jpfx (June 22, 2005, 08:00 PM)

That's not the behavior I have here; I have all my drives excluded except one, and it works fine.  All I have under Excluded Folders are root directories.  Are you running build 102?  They did have some issues with the database, and the exclusion feature, in earlier builds.

I'll spill a little secret here; it's unrelated, but I think worth mentioning.  Please don't spread it far and wide, or they'll probably find some way around it. 

Anyway, under the General section of the options dialog, there is an option to Automatically check for updates.  I think this is an important feature.  But the problem with this--and it is a problem--is that in order to benefit from this feature, you have to give up some privacy.  As a trade-off to the update checks, the idiots try forcing you to submit usage statistics to them on a regular basis. 

I don't care for that, so I found a way around it.  Just enable the aforementioned setting, then find this file:

[Select]

C:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME\Application Data\ACD Systems\ACDSee\70\UsageTrack.txt

And set it to read-only.  Hello update checks, goodbye usage tracking! 

140

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 22, 2005, 10:01 AM »

i have a lot of pictures, but i spend 99% of my time using a quick image viewer (freeware irfanview), rather than inside one of the image browsing apps like acdsee.

now i know that acdsee has an image viewer, but im more interested in having a really super fast and convenient image viewer that shows images when i double click them from windows explorer.

-mouser (June 22, 2005, 08:47 AM)

I understand and agree, but ACDSee 7.0 is very quick when opening individual images.  That was one of my requirements before settling on it.  And it's read-ahead and cache-behind makes browsing images one-by-one very fast, too.

I almost feel like I need to step back and say something like "I'm not a salesman for ACDSee."  In fact, I don't like the company much.  They recently told me that one of the bugs I reported was confirmed, but wouldn't get fixed until the next major release--which means I'll have to pay for a bug fix.  Typical nonsense.  (Off topic maybe, but typical.)

But anyway, I still don't think there is a distinction to be made.  If an image viewer sucks for handling multiple files, it has a lousy feature set.  If another application can handle multiple files well, but is slow, then it's a pig.  Both should be rated down.  ACDSee 5.0 was slower than 7.0, so it sucked.  I didn't use version 6.0, but I have read many times that it sucked, too.  But 7.0 is the best of both worlds from what I see here...  And it's not alone.  XnView was pretty good, too.

I'll shutup after this, really...  I just don't think it's too much to ask for an image viewer to be both fast and multi-file capable.  To me, that's a bare minimum, and everything else is just a nicety.  For example, I wouldn't put image-editing or screen-capture features in with those two criteria.  I don't consider those things to be essentials for an image viewer.

It has got to be fast, and it has to be able to handle lots of files.  If not, it's shitware.  (I'm such a binary bastard!)

141

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 22, 2005, 08:15 AM »

I think there should be one category.  What good is a graphics viewer that can't handle multiple files well?  If it chokes when showing thumbnails, it sucks as far as I'm concerned, but it's still an image viewer.  (Sorry for stepping on the toes of a freeware fave, but I am addicted to truth.)  Breaking off a category just for the ones that can't thumbnail well is grading on a curve.

142

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 22, 2005, 06:06 AM »

Thumbnail storage seems like an arbitrary distinction to me, especially since it can be switched off in any decent application that supports it.

143

Best E-mail Client / Re: Folder Content Counts

« on: June 21, 2005, 07:51 PM »

As it turns out, Thunderbird 1.0.2 also has this feature, though it's far from obvious.  I've attached a screen shot that shows the control you need to click to expose this hidden column.  The screen shot shows a tiny part of the folder pane.

I only know this because I finally got fed up with PocoMail's bugs and ditched it.

144

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 21, 2005, 01:12 PM »

It was Brennig's.  But I see that the project has been sucked up by Ashampoo.  I'm sure they'll turn it to shit in no time, if not already.

145

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 21, 2005, 01:08 PM »

XnView was pretty good, for freeware.  I used it briefly.  It can't compete with the better packages, though.  There was one other freebie I tried--it had a stupid name I can't remember--but it was also pretty good (maybe better than XnView).  If you happen to care, I'll get off my ass and find out what it was. 

146

General Software Discussion / Re: GrafxShop

« on: June 20, 2005, 08:42 AM »

You mean, for once a program went from shareware to freeware without me having paid for it first?  Holy duck shit!

147

Unfinished Requests / Re: IDEA: Spring-loaded folders!

« on: June 20, 2005, 01:18 AM »

Sounds like a pain in the ass to me.  Desksoft FastFolders might be easier, but it makes Explorer crash on my system.

148

Living Room / Re: Nice online virus-testing site

« on: June 20, 2005, 01:15 AM »

I was considering reinstalling Kaspersky Anti-Virus just for on-demand use, when I discovered that they now offer a web-based scanner:

http://www.kaspersky.../kws/kavwebscan.html

So screw installing KAV; I've been using this free scanner.  Why they use ActiveX and MSIE is beyond me--I mean, is there something wrong with simply having people download and run a little application?  Whatever, it's the best thing going.

149

Best Firewall / Re: Outpost and WinXP SP2

« on: June 17, 2005, 07:37 PM »

More info about Agnitum's support (or lack thereof). I got an email today, 9 days after the original support ticket was started, saying that my question had been passed to the developers.

-tenseiken (June 17, 2005, 06:25 PM)

That's about what happened to me last time I sent an email.  Then I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Then I sent a follow-up.  Still nothing.  This was months and months ago.  Agnitum can kiss my ass.

Regarding not running a software firewall...  Give me a break.  Software firewalls are more a threat to me than malware is.  I've never had malware make my system crash over and over, suck my wallet dry, or waste my time the way software firewalls have.  Besides, the real malware can bypass them all anyway.  Routers are indeed useless for outbound stuff, but they're very useful for blocking typical threats from the outside, which is still a big deal these days.

150

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Future Review (not this week): Graphics Viewers

« on: June 17, 2005, 05:35 PM »

Yes, excluding a directory from the database prevents thumbnails from being stored, too.  I like running "lean" also, but it's always a trade-off between leanness and features.