Messages

76

General Software Discussion / Re: Software for using portable media player

« on: October 21, 2005, 05:58 PM »

http://www.mediamonkey.com/ is rather good.

77

Living Room / Re: Anyone know of a Postal Mail Checker?

« on: October 21, 2005, 05:45 PM »

ISTR avery labels had one you could run in Word or standalone that was free that would check addresses for you.
I can probably dig it out at work but that would be monday some time.

78

Living Room / Re: Shopping for a DVD player

« on: October 21, 2005, 05:42 PM »

get the cheapest one you can find made in china.
they're virtually all region free and play well enough, but not so that having an HDTV will do you a scrap of good.
anyway at ~$30 it's no real loss.
I have a philips DP642 which has divx built in and that was about ~$60 and arguably a little more robust.
http://www.videohelp.com/ is the place to look for this sort of stuff.

79

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Registry Cleaning Software

« on: October 12, 2005, 06:18 PM »

I use ace utilities http://www.acelogix.com/ and/or jv16 powertools http://www.jv16.org/.
Both are well rated, inexpensive and powerful enough to be dangerous. These are definitely appplications that require backups before use.

80

Living Room / Re: Website for Cats!

« on: October 12, 2005, 05:55 PM »

arf!

81

Living Room / Re: Textbook Disclaimer Stickers

« on: October 10, 2005, 04:56 PM »

I don't use stickers much.

82

Living Room / Re: Regular Charter Honorary Deluxe Super Plus Ultimate Members

« on: October 10, 2005, 04:52 PM »

elitist & divisive, or at least give the user the option to turn off these things.

83

General Software Discussion / Re: Usenet/NewsReaders — suggestions?

« on: October 09, 2005, 04:42 PM »

You should not get prompted for a login/password to download mysql.
Try softpedia maybe: http://www.softpedia...se-Utils/MySQL.shtml

84

General Software Discussion / Re: Usenet/NewsReaders — suggestions?

« on: October 08, 2005, 06:26 PM »

JP, how do you download and install one of the database engines? It keeps asking for authentication and ID/password info.

-zridling (October 08, 2005, 12:23 AM)

Please expand a bit. Are you asking in reference to newsman pro which needs a database like mysql?

85

General Software Discussion / Re: Just how bad is IE?

« on: October 07, 2005, 05:49 PM »

I keep IE around because some sites only work correctly if you view them in plain IE.
IE on it's own seems a very dangerous thing but with anti-virus/spyware and an ad-blocker it becomes pretty safe as long as the user is switched on to the dangers (like malign web search engines).
I'm currently using maxthon which uses the IE engine. I've used netcaptor for many years but it's gone from the forefront of browsers to an 'also ran' and development is stagnant.
I've tried firefox and didn't like it. The same goes for opera too.
Opera would be ideal if everyone followed the standards instead of writing for IE. I'm sure a whole boatload of new non-standards will appear with the new version of IE (sigh).

86

General Software Discussion / Re: Usenet/NewsReaders — suggestions?

« on: October 06, 2005, 07:44 PM »

I forgot one that really deserves a mention: newsman pro. http://www.newsmanpro.com
All round good program with superlative support from the developer.

87

General Software Discussion / Re: Usenet/NewsReaders — suggestions?

« on: October 06, 2005, 07:30 PM »

newsrover?.... ughh If you collect 1000's of posts it becomes unuseable. plus regular $10 fees for updates
OE craps html into usenet and should be banned.
Agent 3.0 is an excellent text newsreader. http://www.forteinc.com
newspro is the ultimate text newsreader with a learning curve to match. http://www.netwu.com/newspro/
The newspro author has release usenet explorer which I hear good things about. http://www.netwu.com/ue/
newsbin pro 5.0 is great for binaries. http://www.newsbin.com/
newsleecher is the easiest for stealing software and useless at everything else. http://www.newsleecher.com

Take your pick.

88

Living Room / Re: Stupid IE question

« on: October 05, 2005, 01:39 PM »

For maxthon to open new windows in the foreground, you have to click one of the icons in the status bar. I'm not using it at work but I think it might be the page with arrow icon.
There's no menu item for this that I ever found.

89

Living Room / Re: strange RAM problem - any ideas?

« on: October 05, 2005, 12:05 PM »

try system idle process...

90

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst. Interface. Ever.

« on: September 30, 2005, 06:18 PM »

fugly; and an insult to Land Rovers.
Dantz Retrospect... that's horrendously over complicated too. It excels in taking 10 steps where another program takes 3. Unresponsive too.

91

General Software Discussion / Re: AppRocket: Quicksilver for Windows

« on: September 30, 2005, 06:11 PM »

any review of approcket needs to consider the ridiculous amount of memory it consumes and the probability that there is no ongoing development.

92

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst. Interface. Ever.

« on: September 29, 2005, 05:23 PM »

Total Commander is so ugly I could never use it the way it is.

93

General Software Discussion / Re: Would you pay for WinZip?

« on: September 20, 2005, 05:28 PM »

I've 'grown' into paying for software. But I'm still much more inclined to pay the small guy than the big guy. Maybe because my voice has a chance to be heard with one and no chance at all with the other.

As for winzip... no chance now personally and no chance at work unless a new version becomes the 'de facto' standard.

94

Living Room / Re: OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« on: September 20, 2005, 05:06 PM »

I left in 96, before they got really started on the millenium thing across the river. I was born in Beckenham and grew up in Lewisham. You make it look extremely pleasant.
Not to put the dampers on it too much but I almost always had trouble breathing during rush hour on the bicycle especially passing the Cutty Sark. Pollution seemed very thick there. You're probably okay up on Blackheath.
Nice to see pictures though, I have no photos and although I'd like to go back, it's one of those things waiting for the non existent lottery ticket win.
Thanks for sharing!

95

Living Room / Re: Network problem - can anyone advise?

« on: September 19, 2005, 06:28 PM »

making a lot of assumptions about your network...

I would suggest giving the pc with the printer a fixed IP address. Update hosts file on all PCs so they know what the printer's pc IP address is and make sure that they can ping it. Could be a master browser issue of some sort.

But I really don't know, just suggesting something to try.

96

Living Room / Re: OK - lets het to know each other a bit ... where do we all come from ...

« on: September 19, 2005, 06:18 PM »

I was born in Oxford.... long time ago

Now I live in Greenwich (SE London).

-Miles (September 18, 2005, 05:59 AM)

Ahh.. I went to Uni in Greenwich. Those pictures bring back memories of me pedaling like a beast along the road at the bottom of the hill, coming to/from Brockley & Woolwich every day.

I now live in The States (sob). If you have any other pictures you could point me at I would be so obliged!

97

Living Room / Re: Help! - serious weirdness

« on: September 19, 2005, 06:13 PM »

Sounds like a corrupt file, maybe cross-linked with something that can bring the system down. Outside of Word, copy the file to another location, don't move it because that will only update the links. Delete all temp files, scan for errors and reboot. If the the file still causes the problem then dump the file or fix it using some sort of disk doctor.
I've also seen memory faults cause this sort of behaviour to the point where doing the same thing causes the error. Worst case scenario is hdd or memory, but it's probably the file that is bad.

98

General Software Discussion / Re: TrID file identifier

« on: September 16, 2005, 05:15 PM »

I use trid at work for figuring out what some customers send us as data. Very useful.

99

General Software Discussion / Re: Calendar software

« on: September 15, 2005, 05:46 PM »

After perusing zaine's site I noticed that TexNotesPro comes with a copy of CalendarGem which is more what I wanted (if a bit too heavily themed for me). What an excellent suite of programs!!
Now if only there was a 'ContactGem'. Contacts seem to be conspicuous by their absence.

100

General Software Discussion / Re: Calendar software

« on: September 14, 2005, 07:16 PM »

Although a registered user of essentialpim, I find the program very superficial. For instance the to-do list is in alphabetical order no matter what precedence or due date is set.
The calendar doesn't even show 'to-do's and to my mind there should be 3 calendars: previous, current and next month, or whatever you want to show.
The clock is plain ugly, imitating an LED display... what for? There's no choice either and military time (which I prefer) shows with 'am/pm'.
Much as i hate Outlook, it takes a lot of beating. And, to be honest, either Agenda or Pocket Informant on an M$ PDA are so far ahead in terms of features and presentation. If only they didn't sync only with Outlook.
But I did want something small, fast and effective for a PC and in the end I'm disappointed with epim.
I have the usbkey version which through no fault of it's own adds lethargy to the equation.