Topics

3801

Backup Guide / Hello from Genie-soft (and info about discount)

« on: April 17, 2005, 06:30 AM »

see the review or specials page, or members-only section for discount link.

3802

Mircryption / mcpsybnc upgraded to 2.3.2-5

« on: April 17, 2005, 04:53 AM »

https://www.donation...ion/extra_news.shtml

3803

Living Room / New game here at DonationCoder.com

« on: April 17, 2005, 02:51 AM »

try to find the little jokes and passing insults that i put in the saturday reviews.

3804

Best FTP Server / ASRT: Ftp Server Review Thread

« on: April 17, 2005, 01:48 AM »

suggestions?

3805

Living Room / One of my favorite things to listen to

« on: April 16, 2005, 07:58 AM »

one of my favorite things to listen to.  redefines the word sublime.
"This American Life"

the entire archive can be listened to online (or downloaded with streambox vcr):

http://www.thislife....es/wbez_special.html

3806

UrlSnooper / New beta of Url Snooper 2.04.01 in Members Only section (adds case sensitivity)

« on: April 16, 2005, 05:41 AM »

See post in members only section for download of url snooper 2.04.01 which now respects casee sensitivity, as described in recent post by veblin.

https://www.donation.../index.php?topic=117

keeping with our current experiment, new betas will not be made available to general public for a short amount of time, as an attempt to reward members and encourage donators.

I also put the help file for urlsnooper online in keeping with the rest of the software.

3807

BrowserTraySwitch / Beta Testers Requested

« on: April 15, 2005, 10:48 PM »

I could really use some beta testing of this app by people with multiple browsers,
who are feeling brave.

i've done everything i know of to make sure that registry changes are safe, documented, anc backed up just in case. but i'd really like to get some preliminary reports from a friendly audience here before i release it into the wild so to speak

if anyone wants to try this who isnt a member, here is the download:

https://www.donation...rTraySwitchSetup.exe

3808

ProcessTamer / ProcessTamer 2.00.14

« on: April 15, 2005, 05:14 AM »

sometime between 2.00.11  and 2.00.13 i set the update speed to once every 5 seconds as a test and forgot to set it back to once per second, which was basically causing it to take a loooooooooooooong time to detect hogging cpu processes.  sorry!

please upgrade to 2.00.14 (full change list on process tamer page)

url in members only section.

3809

ProcessTamer / Anyone else with this issue?

« on: April 14, 2005, 09:06 PM »

got a report that the open file dialog that pops up when you click the "Open File" button, on very top right (to right of "Tool Menu Caption") of configuration tab on Process Tamer 2 options form, dissapears or never shows up at all.

anyone else find that pushing this button has no effect or somehow shows the open file dialog off screen or something?

3810

ProcessTamer / Some other apps related to process tamer

« on: April 13, 2005, 11:42 PM »

in my help files i always try to list similar apps to mine.
here are some programs similar in approach to my process tamer app, for those who are curious.  these can also be found in process tamer help file or online help:

http://www.bitsum.com/ProSuper.asp - similar application, works on networked installations (shareware)
http://www.prioritymaster.com/ - similar program (seems a bit hyped shareware)
http://ivagos.com/index.php?lnk=6 - manually set process priorities (shareware)
http://www.pgware.com/products/pcboost - boosts priority of currently used app [works on win9X?]  (shareware)

3811

DesktopCoral / DesktopCoral Download

« on: April 13, 2005, 01:05 AM »

New util: DesktopCoral
For more info see the page on it ( https://www.donation...ktopcoral/index.html )

https://www.donation...esktopCoralSetup.exe

3812

Mouser's Zone / Ideas i want to bounce off you guys

« on: April 10, 2005, 05:06 PM »

i've been thinking about some ideas to encourage people to make donations to the site if they are mainly here for the software.
i know this is a sensitive issue but i wanted to bounce some ideas off you guys and see what you think.

the first basic requirement is that the software should always remain free to use. and the second is that members should not be inconvenienced.

one thing i've been trying with process tamer is to make the newest beta release available to members only.
there is something unsatisfying about this, because it means people cant try/use the latest beta unless they are members, and they must either wait for it to come out of beta or else donate (or email me in which case i give out the link).

maybe i should just not worry about this issue at all.. but i was thinking about some other ideas.

here is one idea i had:
use a very simple efficient license keyfile, which would operate like this:
if you a member of the site, you will be able to create a keyfile (as many as you want really), that will go in the directory of the program (in process tamer directory for example), or in some other directory.  this key file will tell the program that it will never expire, and would let you customize the about box and maybe titlebar caption for the program.  so members should experience not the slightest inconvenience other than downloading (only once) a keyfile to put into the program directory.

if you are NOT a member of the site, and just download the program,
it will install and run fine without a license keyfile, but in 30 days you will have to come back to the site to get a new freeware license keyfile.
so a freeware license keyfile will last for 30 days before it needs you to come back and get another one.
but there will be no limit to the time you can get new freeware keyfiles, and there will be no limits to the freeware version.
the only point is to make freeware users come back occasionally to the site where we can ask them to consider donating.

to me this captures the spirit of making the software free and not limited in features, or posessing nags when using the program, while still adding a bit of inconvenience and encouragement to register.

it also means i can make the latest versions normal downloads for everyone, without doing a members only download section.

after some thought about this approach i'm really starting to like it, but i want to hear your opinions.

as always, people who contact me and cannot afford to make a donation would be given member keyfiles.

opinions?
please keep in mind that in an ideal world none of this would be necesary, and i've spend most of my life not worrying about such things, but if I'm to continue spending so much time on this site, I have to figure out some way to encourage people to donate.

3813

BrowserTraySwitch / Features being considered..

« on: April 10, 2005, 01:56 AM »

I'm thinking of adding some features to BrowserTraySwitch that are found in some other tools used for web development.

For example. commands to change size of open browser to a fixed size (to test appearance with certain sized browsers), and perhaps a function to open a given web page in ALL known browsers, to compare rendering..

any other ideas?

3814

Open Source Roundups / Open Source Review #1

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:58 PM »

The DonationCoder.com OpenSource Review #1 can be found here:

https://www.donation...enSource1/index.html

share your thoughts about why you agree or disagree with our awards.. if you disagree, tell us about what program you think should have won.  note: this post is locked - please put comments in new threads.

3815

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

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:57 PM »

The DonationCoder.com WebsiteWatcher Review can be found here:

https://www.donation...bWatchers/index.html

share your thoughts about why you agree or disagree with our review.. if you disagree, tell us about what program you think should have won.  note: this post is locked - please put comments in new threads.

3816

Best Virtual Machine Tool / Virtual Machine Tool Review/Award - VmWare Workstation 5

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:56 PM »

The DonationCoder.com VmWare5 Review can be found here:

https://www.donation...alMachine/index.html

share your thoughts about why you agree or disagree with our review.. if you disagree, tell us about what program you think should have won.  note: this post is locked - please put comments in new threads.

3817

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / This weeks review subject changed from Backup Tool to Best Virtual Machine Tool

« on: April 09, 2005, 10:50 PM »

I think posted a while ago that the new release of vmware5 would pre-empt our planned review.  Combined with the recent reviews on other sites of backup tools I thought this would be an even better idea.

3818

Best Website Change Monitoring Tool / Interesting new related program: CommunityMate

« on: April 07, 2005, 04:29 AM »

I just got a nice email from the people who make Right Web Monitor, which was mentioned in the WSW review.
They pointed out to me that they are working on another program, CommunityMate, which is available for download on their site as an alpha build: http://www.right-soft.com/communitymate.

It's specifically designed to keep track of usenet (newsgroup) and web forums, and it looks to be a really neat project.

The web page says:
"CommunityMate is in alpha-version development stage. It's quite uncompleted version and needs to be tested in details. RightSoft invites testers for deep exploration of the program. Most active testers will gain a free registration for their work. If you're interested in it, just drop a note using Contact form. Anyway you can drop your suggestions - they would be greatly appreciated. "

Might be something people here want to try and send them suggestions about.

3819

Official DonationCoder.com Reviews / Corrupt Hardware+Software Reviews , Payola etc.

« on: April 06, 2005, 04:20 PM »

Interesting read:
http://hardware.slas...?tid=149&tid=137

thought i would mention this as an excuse to reitterate that this site does not accept payment from companies.  We have neither received nor solicited money or gifts for our reviews, or for commissions on sales offered to our members, etc.

we only contact companies to ask for discounts for our members after our awards are decided; companies are told very clearly that offering a discount to our members will not affect the review or choice of award, except to the extent that we feel the discount makes the program's price more reasonable and worth purchasing.

3820

General Software Discussion / ASRT (Advance Software Reconnaissance Team) thread for 4/9/05 is active

« on: April 05, 2005, 02:59 PM »

in the members only section.

this section was created so we could get help prior to reviews in locating qualifying programs and thoughts on important features to consider for the review.

please visit the thread and post your thoughts.

3821

Backup Guide / Pre-review discussion of Backup Software

« on: April 04, 2005, 05:39 AM »

Next week will be Drive Imaging Tools

It will be part 1 of a 2 (or even 3) week series on backing up:
    1) Drive Imaging
    2) Incremental Backup of Documents
    3) A guide to good backup processes including 1+2 and extra info.

#2 is probably going to be the tricky one as there are so many tools for doing this..

Drive imaging (#1) is easier since there are very few of these tools (true image, drive image, and maybe 3 or 4 others).

Please help out by providing info as discussed in the other thread.

For those unclear, a Drive Imaging tool makes a complete compressed copy of your hd so that it can be restored later.
The current state of the art seems to be TrueImage and DriveImage/Ghost (now the same thing).

Minimal requirements to be considered for this award:
1) images an entire hd, including multiple partitions
2) can run while windows is still running
3) lets you explore/search/retrieve from images

so if you know of other programs that qualify, please post! (this is thing that would benefit me the most, so i don't miss a program)
and otherwise you can list your views on best/worst, and just as important if not more so, what features in a drive imaging tool you think are most important.

3822

Living Room / Support for donating using the Amazon.com Honor System added

« on: April 02, 2005, 09:38 PM »

I've just added the ability to donate to the site using the Amazon.com honor system for donations.

If you choose to donate using Amazon.com, you'll have to email us yourself with your Amazon.com "Order Summary ID#", in order for us to activate your membership, since Amazon.com donations are anonymous and we have no other way of knowing who the donation has come from; Amazon.com also takes a larger portion of your donation from us as a surcharge for using their service (and requires you to create an amazon.com account before you can donate), so we'd recommend and prefer that you used PayPal.com.

I have to I much prefer dealing with PayPal, but at least here is another option for people who have an issue with PayPal, or who want to remain anonymous for some reason.

3823

Mouser's Zone / if you submitted a bug and i didn't credit you in help file, let me know

« on: April 02, 2005, 05:58 PM »

if you tell me about a bug to fix and somehow i forget to give you credit in the help file when i fix it, please email me so i can correct it.

3824

ProcessTamer / Process Tamer 2 preview available to Members

« on: March 31, 2005, 02:21 PM »

The members only section has the current download for the v2 preview release, for those who are interested in trying it early.
Post comments in this section.

Preview releases are generally for members only - the official final releases will be available as freeware to public.

If you are not a member of this site and cannot afford to (or for whatever reason won't) donate, please contact me ([email protected]) and i will email you the url.

3825

Best Website Change Monitoring Tool / Pre-review discussion of Best Website Change Monitor

« on: March 29, 2005, 12:14 PM »

This saturday's award will be for best Website Change Monitoring tool.
There are several of these such programs available, and some free ones as well.

here's a good page of some:
shareware -> http://www.snapfiles...isctools/swmoni.html
freeware -> http://www.snapfiles...isctools/fwmoni.html
(now you know why SnapFiles is on our links page as one of the best software search sites)


ok so, keeping with the plans for ASRT, what would be nice is some replies in the next week on the following kinds of subjects:
1) if you found a program that falls into this category that looks especially good, post a link to it
2) post features you think are important for this category
3) post information about how you think a particular app stacks up against others, and how it stacks up using the features suggested by you or others
what features are lacking, which are good, etc.

IMPORTANT:
[ edited - i've edited this post and removed my current expected winner  until we decide whether announcing the candidate winner selected by reviewer should be public ]

DISCLAIMER:
i know this category quite well and prior to our collective decision here to get group participation in the reviews, i made a preliminary choice of the winner of this category and contacted the author about offering a discount to our members, under the same conditions as our other discounts (ie absolutely no commission or payment to this site, all discount goes to users).  this decision is not final, but i thought it was worth mentioning.  however, your views and opinions and feature lists would still be incredibly helpful in writing a comprehensive review, and there is always the issue of awarding a freeware alternative, etc.  and the discussion about best program will, as we discussed earlier, be a useful record for others to read along with the award.