Messages

26

General Software Discussion / Re: Anybody Know About DiskTune?

« on: April 09, 2009, 10:36 PM »

Thanks for the additional info, Steven.

IMHO this is superior freeware. I'm using it on two machines now: an aging IBM Intellistation Z Pro with a 36 GB SCSI hard drive and a Dell Dimension 3000 with a 250 GB Hitachi IDE drive. Both machines run WinXP. While DiskTune did not make much difference in performance on my IBM (I was already using JKDefrag), it actually worked some magic on my Dell: noticeably faster boot AND it seems to have eliminated an annoying (but intermittent) error message about Samsung's Status Monitor Manager (SSMMgr.exe) hanging when I used to reboot. 

27

General Software Discussion / Re: Anybody Know About DiskTune?

« on: April 08, 2009, 10:15 AM »

Thanks, mouser. I found this post by Joep about DiskTune in the freeware newsgroup this week:

I guess it's not very common for the author of the software to comment but
I'll do that anyway. It's less than a month old. So, I guess as long as
everybody keeps looking at each other for reviews it's going to take a
while. It's really perfectly safe, all file system transactions are handled
by the defrag API. In pre-alphas I have tried all kinds of weird stuff and
dangerous stuff simply isn't processed by this API. It just would tell
DiskTune, I'm not gonna do that, period. The worst that can happen is that
it makes your PC slower (but it's not going to). Well, in that case use your
trusted defragger to clean up the mess. Maybe it's even safer than all other
defraggers because it will prevent your disk from overheating. Others, while
moving large files make your disk temp rise but they don't notice and just
cary on. This is not really a problem for Auslogics etc. because they don't
move a lot at all.

I received a lot of email though. Most very positive even some 'WOWs', many
with suggestions for improvements. Probably I am the one who uses it the
longest but reviewing my own software is a bridge too far. I initially wrote
it for personal use only after trying I guess about 10 other defraggers,
free and commercial.

I didn't like most freewares because they weren't doing a lot. Their
displays and reports showed they defragged. They sometimes claimed enormous
system improvements but I didn't notice them (20% after processing 13 files,
rubbish of course). Auslogics? I didn't notice any difference. SMART Defrag
the same. It even felt slower. The one freeware that actually did do
something was JKDefrag but I found it a bit complex and I didn't want
command-line control only. I am a 'clicker'. Also, JK did make my disk get
really hot. But if you want perfect control over what goes where then
JKDefrag (next version MyDefrag is in beta with even more control) is the
tool of choice.

The commercial ones all installed more than one service/background task and
I don't like that. I think it's ok for a virus scanner to do that because I
want real-time protection. A defrag/optimize is typically something I want
to be able to run on-demand or schedule. Why install and constantly run yet
another scheduler while we have the Windows scheduler? The few commercials I
likes were Puran and Vopt. And PerfectDisk to some degree because it really
made my PC feel faster.

So, then after that I read up on the defrag API, and DiskTune is just the
result of a lot of tinkering in my spare time. A lot of what it does is just
common sense: Outer tracks are faster than inner so let's put stuff in those
that makes the PC feel faster (boot faster, launch faster, load files
faster). Files that fragment are also typically accessed a lot, so let's
make some room to defrag files into those outer tracks as well. So, I tried
a lot of stuff and dang, my PC really runs faster. It boots faster, loads my
game levels faster, makes IE load pages faster etc.. My guess is that
PerfectDisk does even better file placement but it's not my goal to
outperform anyone. DiskTune isn't the fastest either, especially analysis.

28

General Software Discussion / Anybody Know About DiskTune?

« on: April 07, 2009, 02:26 PM »

Just downloaded & tried the defrag and optimizer features in DiskTune at http://www.diydatare...very.nl/DiskTune.htm . Anyone familiar with DiskTune? Seems like pretty cool freeware.

29

General Software Discussion / SoftMaker Office 2008 for Linux vs. WinXP

« on: November 23, 2008, 02:30 PM »

Check out a new review of Softmaker Office at http://www.linux.com/feature/153229

Last week, I downloaded an earlier version of Softmaker's software for WinXP after I saw the link at http://lifehacker.co...tweight-office-suite . Softmaker offered me a generous upgrade deal for the 2008 version a few days later and I bought it. Textmaker runs rings around any other word processor that I've used (in WinXP). Rock solid. (Zaine Ridling covered all the good stuff in his review of word processors.) Moreover, it comes with BasicMaker (BM's manual runs to 300+ pages! (Manuals for other office components are even larger)), spreadsheet, presentation software. 

OTOH, I do about 50% of my computing in Ubuntu 8.10, and abiword 2.6.4 works really well in Ubuntu. OpenOffice.org is also plenty fast in linux. (I dual boot on a Dell 3000 running at 3 GHz with 1 GB RAM.) Neither is very fast in WinXP.

Kudos to Softmaker for doing a linux port. Not ready to make a switch in linux--though I did test it on my machine--but they definitely got my attention for WinXP.

30

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the best LINUX software?

« on: October 08, 2008, 07:24 PM »

Though I use Ad Muncher these days in WinXP, I use Proxomitron via Wine in Ubuntu 8.04. Claws invokes Galeon for my email links & Proxomitron works like nobody's business! Based on my good experience with Proxomitron, I may look at other WinXP softwares for linux (e.g., Chrome) as well as the excellent linux suggestions.

31

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the best LINUX software?

« on: October 08, 2008, 10:57 AM »

For those of you who have "taken the plunge" or are familiar with Linux software, what is your favorite or the "known best" Linux software?

Check out this amazing 126+ page thread about little-known linux apps http://ubuntuforums....thers+might+-know+of 

32

Living Room / Re: Trialpay

« on: September 08, 2008, 05:18 PM »

I am wondering how many of you have utilized trialpay as a means of purchasing a program? What programs do you know of which support this method of payment?

Josh - I registered my copy of Ad Muncher through TrialPay yesterday and it was great! I bought a product that I needed anyway (spare toner cartridge) at a very competitive price. 

33

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ShellLess file manager

« on: September 06, 2008, 01:00 PM »

I don't think the name ShellLess is about the file manager, but the company's name.

Hmmm...I misread GAOTD's summary. I may take a closer look at ShellLess while the deal is still good. 

34

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: ShellLess file manager

« on: September 06, 2008, 10:11 AM »

Thanks for the heads up about ShellLess.

I never bothered with third-party file managers until Ubuntu (I dual boot with WinXP). Now I use Krusader. OTOH, the ShellLess GAOTD comments contain a link to NexusFile V, and I think I may be able to use it in WinXP. 

35

General Software Discussion / Re: Google Chrome -- a new browser coming (in beta) in a few hours

« on: September 04, 2008, 11:04 PM »

It feels very fast indeed and once I had set ad-muncher to strip advertising from pages it feels no slower than Opera

Whoa! Thanks, Dirhael. I started evaluating Ad Muncher today and it is exactly what I need for Sleipnir (and, possibly Chrome (after Google addresses its shortcomings)). I still got a month to look it over but I may register sooner. Great thread.  

36

Living Room / Re: What are your favorite gadgets and gizmos?

« on: September 04, 2008, 08:19 PM »

Check out this link - http://www.staples.c...1_SC1:CG821:CL160904

I like hard copies of the ebooks/docs that I use so I splurged on one of these last year and it rocks! 

37

General Software Discussion / Re: I found a jewel of a program: XMplay

« on: August 21, 2008, 08:18 AM »

I found a jewel of a program: XMplay

Awesome player & my new favorite for Windows! I finally tested it this week (using WinXP more these days since I installed BitWare for business).

By the way, if anybody uses Ubuntu v8.04 then check out RealPlayer 11. Sleek & fast, I no longer use XMMS for StreamTuner; RealPlayer 11 absolutely rocks for radio streams (KUAT, KUSC, Polski Classical, etc.). It's really an open secret in linux. 

38

Living Room / Re: Skimp or splurge?

« on: August 15, 2008, 10:48 AM »

I've never heard of gaffer's tape, but I have some Gorilla Tape that's actually holding a very large, heavy wood dresser together.

Gorilla Tape is amazing! *Many* applications. I repaired a downspout on some outdoor guttering two years ago and the repair is still good. I've even used it to repair a noisy Dell PC case. (By the way, check out Gorilla Glue as well.)

Some additional items:
Splurge: premium paint (Sherwin-Williams Duration), rechargeable AA & AAA batteries, Hitachi hard drives, computer books
Skimp: OS (mostly use Ubuntu 8.04 (supplemented rarely by WinXP Pro))

Possible future splurge: das keyboard 

39

General Software Discussion / Re: Trinity Rescue Kit

« on: July 05, 2008, 08:20 AM »

Great find! I downloaded it this morning & tested the AVG scanner against my WinXP partition. Looks exactly like what I've been looking for. 

40

Living Room / Re: Looking for web based or book based help on Windows / Linux servers

« on: January 29, 2008, 05:06 PM »

Here's a link to a huge portal of training tutorials/resources http://www.intelligentedu.com/

41

Living Room / Re: Looking for web based or book based help on Windows / Linux servers

« on: January 28, 2008, 10:25 PM »

Does anyone know of any good websites and/or books that provide a good basic introduction to setting up and maintaining small server based systems that would get me up to speed quickly (both Windows 2003 and Linux would be useful).

Hi Carol -

Not sure about Windows, but SpiderTools advertises their linux server courses at DistroWatch.com. Here's their link - http://spidertools.com/index.html

Good luck with your venture!