Messages

226

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« on: March 28, 2006, 03:03 AM »

I think MS have been pushing subscription model licenses in the commercial world.

Actually in practice a lot of software is effectively subscription based these days - either that or you can't even download bug fixes. Most shareware allows updates for a limited period - it is getting much rarer to get 'lifetime updates' even when we aren't talking about upgrades.

-Carol Haynes (March 28, 2006, 02:58 AM)

Though I agree that lifetime licenses are the nicest way of buying software.. it's far from the most profitable way for a software maker. That's why there's less of that, and in essence I see nothing wrong in thinking that way. With a lifetime license, you literally give away your current work and all that follows it, which is VERY generous.

227

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Registry Cleaner?

« on: March 28, 2006, 01:47 AM »

https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=1188.0

-brotherS (March 28, 2006, 01:18 AM)

Nice thread there! Thanks for the link. I take it from that thread that the shareware favorite is JV16 Powertools? A new version of that is coming up, by the way. JV16 Powertools 2006 is what it's called and it is supposed to be released soon. It will be interesting to see what's new there.
As for freeware, the favorites seem to be EasyCleaner and Regseeker.

Regseeker I've used before.. I've only always wondered just how good it can be being freeware. Now that I've looked at the product website of EasyCleaner, I must say I'm impressed. The blacklist is a very nice feature, something that should be common in all programs dealing with cleaning the registry. I believe JV16 Powertools also uses a kind of black-list and it even has a feature to automatically update that blacklist with an internal updater. That's very nice.

Guess I'll check out EasyCleaner and wait for the new JV16 Powertools 2006

228

General Software Discussion / Best Registry Cleaner?

« on: March 28, 2006, 12:52 AM »

Since no DC-Review of Registry Cleaners exists and because this fact means there is no ultimate guide the best program in its category on the web , I must ask here. Many of you may not even use registry cleaners, and I use them sometimes, but after a while I just feel like there's too much crap in the registry that could also NOT be there if it were cleaned. The problem with registry cleaning is the incredible numbers of tools available for the job. There are system suites that clean the registry, stand-alone tools that do, and who knows what else. There are so many options for registry cleaners it's ridiculous. Does anybody know which one works reliably and actually is useful? Many of them may just clean the registry of superficial errors.. but I'm looking for a smart, comprehensive registry cleaner that will do a good job and be useful because of it.

Finding the right registry cleaner is next to impossible, given the sheer amount of tools available on the web for this very purpose. So I wonder.. does anybody here know of a comparative review of such tools, or an in-depth look at registry cleaners? If you have an article talking about why registry cleaners are evil and should not even be used in the first place, you can drop that here too. Of course I know they are dangerous and perhaps not even very necessary, but I'm a perfectionist, and if I use my computer for a while and never touch the registry, I just KNOW the registry is going to look like shit after a while. And knowing that really bothers me. It's like not showering for three days. Well, not that I do that.. but I imagine that's what it's comparable to. You sit there and you use your computer, but you know its registry is crammed with crap that needs not be in the registry. It's needless to say that's bothersome.

The Windows registry is one of the crappiest aspects of the OS IMHO. Is there no other way to manage all the settings? Why can't system settings be separated from installed software settings? Why does it all need to be mixed up? And why is the Registry so extremely prone to accumulating complete trash inside itself? It could also be designed in a fashion that is much more transparent and more readily understandable than it is currently.. I wonder if MS has made any progress in this regard with Vista. They've made tons of spectacular improvements to the foundation of Windows with XP, but what's with the registry?

Thanks

229

General Software Discussion / Windows Tweak Tool?

« on: March 28, 2006, 12:30 AM »

I just wrote up this fat and great post about this... and then Opera crash-closes on me on spell-check. OMFG. I could KILL someone right now. Guess I'll make this short this time around. I can't believe I'm actually taking it upon me to write all this AGAIN right after having been done with it and having lost it all...

I'm looking for the best Windows tweaking tool. I used to think that's X-Setup Pro, but there are several annoying this about it. A brief list:

• Where's the option to display only the tweaks that have been applied by the user? This would be very useful, and if memory serves me right has even been part of X-Setup's feature set in the past, but perhaps that was a different program as well
• It displays some identical tweaks in two or even three places in the tweaks list. I understand some tweaks may fit equally well under more than one category.. but there must be a more elegant solution than to simply throw duplicate entries of those tweaks in the list. That's just evil, ugly and confusing.
• It displays tons of irrelevant tweaks. Not only do I think the option to display Windows-version specific tweaks (WinXP in my case) does not work.. X-Setup also shows you tons of custom tweaks for applications like Nero, MS Office etc. without any of that actually being installed on your system. I understand it's not fair to expect X-Setup to be able to detect just what you have installed on your system, as cool as that would be, but it could at least allow the user to select which tweaks should be displayed in the list, and which ones should be hidden. That way I could customize the tweaks list and make looking at tweaks easier on the eyes and more efficient because I wouldn't have to wade through all the tweaks that are completely irrelevant to my system.
• There's no love in the wizards. The wizards are simply a bunch of tweaks glued together in a chain, forced into a coherent "grouping" so as to make it look like a wizard. There's not much wizardy about it. I guess it makes sense to do this, but something about it just doesn't make it a very convincing feature. I can't exactly pinpoint what that is.

I'm familiar with TuneUp Utilities 2006 as well. Most of you must have heard of it before. While it's great for what it does, it's pretty obvious its target user audience are clueless computer users who find themselves right at home with the pretty colors and nice icons and the easy interface. It's Windows tweaking--the Fisherprice way. While there's nothing inherently bad in that attribute, it does make an advanced user question if that's the right tool for the job... I'm looking for a tweaking utility that's got the power of X-Setup, but none of the dumbness of the latter, and if possible, even more than just the lack of X-Setup's deficiencies, but some actual smartness! Does anybody know of any such tool? There are quite a few Windows tweak utilities out there and it's always been hard to pick the right one. I wonder if the DonationCoder.com crowd can help.

TIA

PS
This time I used Opera's "copy to note" feature just to make sure it doesn't crash on me again like the little beta bitch it can be... and guess what, no problems with the spell-check at all this time. Software can be so random...

230

General Software Discussion / Re: Alertbear - the *different* RSS reader - free!

« on: March 28, 2006, 12:04 AM »

And I think it runs a bit heavy on its own - 35mb at the moment on my system.  Nice looking - particularly like the feed history panel, which is neatly arranged and simple.  But I haven't yet found a RSS reader that beats GreatNews...

-m_s (March 27, 2006, 03:21 PM)

That's easy. FeedDemon

231

General Software Discussion / Re: Why subscription-models for software suck

« on: March 28, 2006, 12:01 AM »

MS Word is subscription based? Huh.. I thought subscription means having to renew on a yearly basis, or two years or whatever. I don't know that to be the case with any MS Office products. Still, I agree with you. Subscriptions suck. I'm cool with the traditional pay for one version-possibly pay for future upgrades-model. I mean, if I buy any version 3.xx of something, then it's ok if I'm expected to pay a small update fee for 4.xx.

232

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Cataloguing App?

« on: March 27, 2006, 11:58 PM »

I eagerly await the mini-review 

-rjbull (March 27, 2006, 07:55 AM)

Don't expect it any time soon . I'm in the middle of finals, but I'll see what can be done. If I do get a chance to get more acquainted with the program, I will definitely update this thread.

233

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Cataloguing App?

« on: March 27, 2006, 05:27 AM »

CatDisk: I use Directory Opus, not Total Commander. I appreciate the tip, but that's a no-go for me

DEP: That seems overkill, and looks more like a general media file catalogue app, not specifically suited for software catalogue-ization. Nice find, still!

Discomania... "Last updated Dec 29 1998 - Platform Win9x/NT". No thanks

I think I found the perfect solution, and it's what I mentioned in the first post. SOFTCAT. When I get to it, I'll post screenshots. It's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Pretty awesome tool. It's shareware, but I'll try it out and see how I like it. So far, I'm loving it, but then again I haven't spent much more than five minutes with it, so much remains to be checked out. I'll report back.

234

General Software Discussion / Re: Software Cataloguing App?

« on: March 26, 2006, 01:07 PM »

You mentioned this in the irc channel, and i didn't understand you right. There already is a similar thread here in the forum, check https://www.donation...dex.php?topic=2712.0

-jgpaiva (March 25, 2006, 07:08 PM)

That's not quite it, jgpaiva. I checked out that thread and do understand how you thought that's what I'm looking for.. but I'm looking for something like what Collectorz.com offers, except for SOFTWARE, not for MP3's or Video

235

Living Room / Re: BitTorrent - why bother?

« on: March 26, 2006, 12:32 PM »

When I download torrents, I use Azureus, and my speeds are great most of the time, because I follow some simple rules. If you want torrents to download quickly, you need to get HEALTHY torrents. To go Torrentspy.com, (one of the better torrent search engines out there), and search for your file. It is going to show you each torrent's health status on the right, with bars. Torrent health is an over-arching term for a few factors, like tracker status, ratio between leechers/seeders, etc. And then you also have to make sure you have no NAT in your network. Do you use a router? A software firewall? Do you use the router's firewall? You have to make sure your BT client has a listening pot dedicated to it, and that it's open. Torrents may work if this is not the case, but they will be much slower.

Good BT experience = Good BT client with correct client and network settings + Healthy Torrents

I cannot stress enough how important the latter is. People think all torrents are the same. And people couldn't be farther from the truth. Here's a quick read on fixes for slow speeds: http://www.dessent.net/btfaq/#speed

The Azureus FAQ has an excellent Wiki with NAT problem solutions and healthy-torrent-talk on there.. except I think the Azureus team put up a brand-new Wiki recently, and it's dead right now. Still, here's the link: http://azureus.aelitis.com/wiki/

Azureus is my client of choice by the way. I highly recommend it. Another client that has gained popularity extremely quickly and has now established itself as a major "player" among the BT clients out there is uTorrent. Here's another great guide

Hope this helps.

236

General Software Discussion / Software Cataloguing App?

« on: March 25, 2006, 06:50 PM »

I have a sweet collection of shareware/freeware on my external hard drive, and of course I keep adding items to that collection. Having one folder with it all dumped inside kinda sucks. I'm looking for a Software Cataloguing App that will act much like an MP3 Database or something, except for Software. Also, I don't mean currently installed software, but merely software I have downloaded and stored. One such application I know of and that is supposed to be very nice is SoftCat. I've never tried it, but that's the only app of its kind that I'm aware of.

Thanks in advance

237

Image Manager Shootout / Where is Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0??

« on: March 22, 2006, 06:18 PM »

OMG.. the new forum KICKS ASS and is soooooo beautiful . Sweet. Anyway.. the one tool that's not at all in the review is what I'm currently using. What I need with images is mainly an ORGANIZER, and an efficient, fast and good one at that. I'm at a loss as to why Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 was reviewed, but not Elements 4.0? I mean Album 2.0 is SO "obsolete"! Elements 4.0 is what Album 2.0 turned into, after going through being Elements 3.0 or even Album 3.0? I'm confused on that one. Anyway.. I need to check out the new ACDSee Pro review. Generally, how are ACDSee's management capabilities? I don't really care for the editing so much. There a plenty of other programs that I can edit images with. The excellent and free Paint.NET for example.

Anyone?

238

Living Room / Re: flow - extremely cool flash game that has touches of "spore" in it

« on: March 17, 2006, 10:24 PM »

Very cool.. though it is annoying that it seems like you aren't really going anywhere while playing. That's one of the most important things about games: the player needs to feel some sort of progress. Of course your organism grows and the other beings around you get harder to deal with, but that's about it! Nothing substantial changes.. as far as I could tell, at least. Also, given the fact that there is no way to save a game or even pause it, I assume the game is built in such a way where players are expected to just sort of come back when they feel like it, starting the game over every time.

239

Living Room / Re: cool mafia shootup flash game

« on: March 17, 2006, 04:55 PM »

Sweet game.. but too easy . I didn't even try "normal". I just started out with "hard". It's a habit I got into after years of game-playing experience.. I found that playing on HARD is much more challenging and way more fun as a result, so after a while, I would only play games on hard, and not even try on "normal". Heh.. it was fun nevertheless

240

Find And Run Robot / Re: Performance in New Version

« on: March 06, 2006, 04:59 AM »

Sweet stuff! Good to see FARR is still alive and well . Can I install this version over the latest stable one? Or should I get rid of that one first and install the beta?

241

Best Website Change Monitoring Tool / Re: Website Change Monitoring Review/Award - WebsiteWatcher

« on: March 02, 2006, 05:24 PM »

Well.. I like xplorer2 because it's LITE and is very powerful for its size. Many commands can be used directly through the address bar, and it's got a lot of hidden options as well. I do have a license for DOpus though. I'd have to check if it's still valid . I might give it another shot, who knows. I'll find out about my license and post back when I do.

And mouser, that's right. You can keep using the programs without worrying about preferences, but you see, I'm the type of user that likes to know what's UNDER THE HOOD. As such, I hate software where I don't even understand what the hell I'm looking at in the preferences, or where I don't even udnerstand the certain options do. In certain software that has more features than I need or use, that is acceptable, and such may be the case with DOpus. But in WSW I'd like to know what it all is :/

It doesn't even necessarily have to be changed, although that would be ideal. The Foobar guys, for instance, got their act together with 0.9RC and cleaned up the preferences. I always disliked Foobar before, but when my beta QMP died on me lately, I gave the Foo another shot, not having known it was updated recently, and found myself really liking it with the new preferences. This issue, then, is so important to me that it can make the difference between love and hate for a program!

One very easy way to fix bloated preferences dialogs is to add tool tip explanations of the different functions, or help buttons, or, the best way to do it: an area of the preferences window where infos just show up as you mouse over everything. It's a fairly easy fix and does the trick as it informs the user about what's up, even if the preferences are bloated and shitty.

242

Best Website Change Monitoring Tool / Re: Website Change Monitoring Review/Award - WebsiteWatcher

« on: March 02, 2006, 05:05 PM »

I got my head around DOpus after a while.. but a bunch of things annoyed me about it, so after a while I ditched it in favor of xplorer2, which I'm very happy with. I just wish I could find a way to use it as the default explorer method, but then that maybe isn't the smartest thing either . It's good the way it is, I suppose.

243

Best Website Change Monitoring Tool / Re: Website Change Monitoring Review/Award - WebsiteWatcher

« on: March 02, 2006, 04:34 PM »

Two recent entries and one apparently older one at Lifehacker.com reminded me of this review.. just thought I'd mention that. Perhaps the review is in need of an update?

They are InfoIC, FeedWhip and DeltaSpy.

Oh wow.. nevermind the "a little older entry" remark.. the one I thought was older is actually the very latest entry on Lifehacker.com! It's the last link I posted.

EDIT:
I'm particularly interested in DeltaSpy. Does anyone know about it or have any experience with it? I have nothing against Website Watcher, but I get completely lost in its preferences. They are terrible. A solid 30% of it, if not more, makes plain NO SENSE to me. They are up there on my list of programs with incomprehensible preference dialogs. Directory Opus still takes the cake in the department, but Website Watcher is up there. In contrast, DeltaSpy looks fresh and new and might just do the trick for me. I'll have to try it out.

244

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Personal Translation/Dictionary/Thesaurus Software?

« on: January 22, 2006, 06:31 PM »

That looks very, very interesting. I'll take a look when I get to it. That means, not very soon. My laptop is on its way to CA for repair and I won't have it for another 2 to 3 weeks. It sucks but yeah. And I have no time to check stuff like this out while at the library.. I'm sure you'll understand.

245

General Software Discussion / Re: Best Personal Translation/Dictionary/Thesaurus Software?

« on: January 22, 2006, 03:15 PM »

I ended up with Babylon Pro 5 as well. I've used it before and it's a very reliable and, most of all, fast tool. It's instant and very accurate. As for that question, no it's not. Merriam-Webster also has a tool that uses OCR to look up words, but it's nowhere close to as good as Babylon IMHO.

246

General Software Discussion / Is there a way to edit date accessed/modified of files?

« on: December 03, 2005, 02:00 PM »

Also.. is there a way to tell what all is in MS Word's metadata? I've heard a lot of bad things about the stuff Word keeps in there. Thanks!

247

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: The GodFather - Probably the best audio file organizer/tagger there is

« on: December 03, 2005, 01:43 PM »

I tried Tag&Rename and was shocked at how much easier/faster it is to do the job with Mp3Tag! Maybe it's just because I'm used to Mp3Tag.. but I'm confident in saying that if anyone were to race me in doing a specific tagging job on a specified number of files, there is NO WAY IN HELL I wouldn't win using Mp3Tag versus someone using Tag&Rename. Mp3Tag is extremely intuitive in direct comparison. The Tag&Rename interface sucks in comparison.. but that's just me.

Media Tagger? Never heard. Will check it out

Aside from tagging, what's Godfather useful for? Could you use it as a media library? Like MediaMonkey?

248

General Software Discussion / Re: Podcast client?? (warning, musical OVERKILL, don't click if you have work to do)

« on: November 21, 2005, 05:27 AM »

This is absolutely overkill... in one day I found multiple ways to find great, free music online, I find literally dozens, if not hundreds of MP3 blogs, I dove into the world of podcasting.. though I'm still on the surface of that.. I subscribed to a bunch of MP3 blogs, created a playlist of over 40 songs with nothing but freely available music from MP3 blogs.. and got my brain blown up with all kinds of music discovery sites, review sites...

The internet is too much for me

249

General Software Discussion / Re: Podcast client?? (warning, musical OVERKILL, don't click if you have work to do)

« on: November 21, 2005, 05:25 AM »

holy crap... look at this: http://www.lifehacke...n-the-web-136578.php

More links than you'll want to see. All those comments... and not one mention of GarageBand... or am I missing it? I could add it to that comments page if it isn't there yet

250

General Software Discussion / Re: Podcast client?? (warning, musical OVERKILL, don't click if you have work to do)

« on: November 21, 2005, 05:15 AM »

I never saw/found or read about GarageBand.com anywhere. Thanks for that link! Looks like a great site. I don't have time to check it out now... but will do so ASAP

Thanks