Messages

4626

Living Room / Re: Start on your first $1 million at age 16

« on: December 06, 2006, 07:50 AM »

Fair enough but, if I pay $1 million can I be 16 again?

4627

Official Announcements / Re: What changes would you like to see on DonationCoder.com in 2007?

« on: December 04, 2006, 11:39 PM »

I know this is DonationCoder but I always like to see others' views on hardware. People here are such a savvy bunch that, to me, their opinions count for more than those of most reviewers. It's always good to hear from people who actually use stuff.

Having said so I realize that, in terms of peripherals, I bought 2 new monitors, a 500GB HDD, a laser printer and an ink-jet this year and never even thought to comment on them.  Would anyone else even have been interested?
Oh, yes, and I'd like to win something at least once a month, please

4628

Mobysaurus / Re: Some tips on using Mobysaurus Thesaurus

« on: December 04, 2006, 08:57 AM »

Thanks for the tips...

4629

Best Dialog Extender / Re: Enhanced File Dialog

« on: December 03, 2006, 08:11 PM »

I'll look into it some more, I'd certainly like to modify the places bar in MS dialogs.
Thanks for taking the time to reply!

4630

Best Dialog Extender / Re: Enhanced File Dialog

« on: December 03, 2006, 08:09 AM »

Thanks for the alert!
So far, File-Ex suits me best, out of those that I've tried.
My trouble with utilities is that I get so accustomed to whatever I'm using that 'different' tends to mask 'better' when trying something else.
Do you mind saying what you see as the main advantage of Stardock's Enhanced File Dialog? I'd be interested to know.

4631

Living Room / Re: Demise of the trackball? What's the alternative?

« on: November 30, 2006, 10:17 PM »

Everybody is very helpful here!  Thanks to you all.  I shall pursue Kensington with a Windows XP driver.

4632

Living Room / Re: What's your "Autism Quotient"?

« on: November 29, 2006, 10:40 PM »

26
but then I began thinking carefully about what that means to me and how it would affect my position as center of the universe and now my wife tells me that she couldn't break into my train of thought for three days, did I mention that my wife couldn't break into my train of thought for three days, no not for three days, but that was okay because otherwise I'd have had to take time to meet my subjects guests and I don't like them anyway...

4633

Living Room / Re: Demise of the trackball? What's the alternative?

« on: November 29, 2006, 08:47 PM »

quite a few devices on Amazon - try searching for Trackman

Thanks, I appreciate the help!  I've ordered some from eBay.
Most of those available are refurbished and/or discounted (and Logitech's own supplies appear to be limited to some extent) which still implies to me that it's going to be increasingly difficult to find them before too long.

The Kensington item looks promising but doesn't appear to have drivers for Windows platforms.

4634

Living Room / Re: Demise of the trackball? What's the alternative?

« on: November 29, 2006, 12:18 PM »

Seem to be alive and well on the UK Logitech shop ...

Oh my! Actually, I post here only to prove to the community that my brain has turned to mush.
Thank you very much, Carol, that led me to Logitech Canada who claim to have some.

It's still true that they're not in stores and several big-box stores (when asked) call them obsolete and expect to stock no more.
I guess the thing to do is to estimate my lifetime consumption of these things and buy that many now.

I'm still interested to learn about what mice others are using with multi-monitor displays.

4635

Living Room / Demise of the trackball? What's the alternative?

« on: November 28, 2006, 07:47 PM »

Has anybody else noticed the recent absence of trackballs from just about every computer-peripheral store?

I have used a Logitech TrackMan Marble Wheel for years, the ball on mine is thumb driven.
Being right handed I keep the thing between the right edge of my keyboard and my graphics tablet. I'm used to it, and can cover a lot of real estate without requiring constant hand movements. That way I can work comfortably with both it and the tablet without having to keep moving stuff around.

Lately one of my units has been sticking, so I decided to pick up another. None are to be found in the stores (in Toronto, Canada). Precious few are to be found on the web, most of them refurbished (of which I've ordered several). New product seems to have vanished.

Anyone who uses a mouse would probably experience horror and dismay if asked to use a trackball (my wife does!) but that's just how I feel about using a mouse.

Since the writing appears to be on the wall, I'd be glad to hear recommendations for a mouse--that people have actually used--to scoot the cursor fast around a 3200x1600 desktop and yet still allow excellent precision (not at CAD level but certainly good enough for working with tiny increments in stuff like Illustrator and InDesign). I'm looking for something that keeps hand movement to an absolute minimum.

I thank you in advance for any help you might offer.

4636

Screenshot Captor / Commentary on ScreenshotCaptor - 2.28.01

« on: November 28, 2006, 06:36 PM »

i have 2.6.23

I too.

set exceptions for windows - that might solve it

It did. That solved the redbox issue. My fault for assuming that because turning off UM for one issue made no difference the same would hold true for the next issue.
I wonder why SnagIt is immune to this.

4637

Screenshot Captor / Commentary on ScreenshotCaptor - 2.28.01

« on: November 28, 2006, 04:21 PM »

OS is XP Pro

• I just turned off UltraMon and redbox works for region capture (sorry about that, I thought I'd tried it).
• Region capture not using redbox works only on the screen from which it's started, UltraMon or not, which is what I had tried previously, and where we began.
• Interestingly, although I can't begin a non-redbox region capture on a screen from which it's not launched, i.e. by moving the cursor to the point I desire on the other screen, I CAN stretch the selection onto the other screen. This is true from whichever screen I begin the operation.

So, since you've led to a solution of this redbox thing before teatime I guess $1.74 is yours 
I don't really want to stop UltraMon to perform a screen capture, though.

4638

Screenshot Captor / Commentary on ScreenshotCaptor - 2.28.01

« on: November 28, 2006, 03:45 PM »

i wish i understood why red box capture works on some people's multi-monitor setups and not others..  works perfect on mine.  i'll look into it.

Well, here's the deal. Since Veign is displaying astounding generosity in providing the prizes of the century one is prompted to chip in with some more motivation. I have $1.74 DonationCredits left and, if you can fix this by tea time today, it's ALL yours!

4639

Screenshot Captor / Commentary on ScreenshotCaptor - 2.28.01

« on: November 28, 2006, 02:12 PM »

With two monitors, if I use the sytem tray to start 'Grab selected region' I can only grab from the monitor that's hosting the system tray. If I trigger the same 'grab' by hotkey I can grab from the monitor on which the cursor happens to be, but not from the other (this is the same for me in earlier versions).

Mouser: one fix is to use redbox mode to capture regions

• I can't move the redbox from one monitor to the other. Or, actually I can but it vanishes into some cosmic bit bucket never to be seen again.
• I can stretch the redbox across monitors (the visible 'half' is extending, not moving) but the 'half' on the second monitor is invisible.
• If I move the redbox completely off of one monitor it's inaccessible thereafter. Subsequent operations don't bring it back, so I killed the .ini file to reset the redbox position to default. So, SC positions the redbox properly, it simply doesn't show up (on the monitor from which it was NOT started).
• If I make a redbox capture on the monitor where it's invisible (by crtl-clicking) it makes a capture but the "You have captured...what now?" requester is hung and it'll hang any other window that's open, too, until I kill SC via task manager.

I'll try to see what else I have running that could be manipulating monitor 'screens'.

4640

Screenshot Captor / Commentary on ScreenshotCaptor - 2.28.01

« on: November 28, 2006, 09:50 AM »

You have overcome a quirky thing that used to occur. Adding text to an image, then selecting it, then selecting the number in the "Text Size" box and typing a replacement number created an error condition -- fixed. 

Nothing to do with this release but:
1) The 'cross' cursor is invisible against the grey background colour of my screen. ("Change the background!", I hear you say.) This is true of, say, SnagIt (but that also uses a light coloured pointer, ajacent to its 'cross', to help people who insist on strange background colours).
2) With two monitors, if I use the sytem tray to start 'Grab selected region' I can only grab from the monitor that's hosting the system tray. If I trigger the same 'grab' by hotkey I can grab from the monitor on which the cursor happens to be, but not from the other (this is the same for me in earlier versions).
...and so the universe metes out another punishment...

4641

Living Room / Re: Couple of problems (screensaver and video during startup) - anyone any ideas

« on: November 27, 2006, 06:06 AM »

Just a thought, have you installed any macro utilities since things last worked properly?
I use one that can create just the symptoms you describe (by design).

4642

Living Room / Re: I'd like to express thanks to the DonationCoder.com community today

« on: November 23, 2006, 10:31 PM »

This is an interesting place to visit, in great measure due to your perseverance as far as I can see. Having started without "two ha'pennies to rub together" I can say from experience that perseverance can pay off in many ways -- some financial and some more intangible. Personally, I think it's better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all. Better yet is to have tried and succeeded; one doesn't always notice the success happening until it's well under way.

4643

Post New Requests Here / Re: Create shortcuts from a list

« on: November 21, 2006, 10:28 PM »

i'll be needing a cmd-line *.lnk file maker

This any use?
http://www.ss64.com/nt/shortcut.html

4644

Living Room / Re: Mobo dying .... suggestions please on upgrading my system ...

« on: November 11, 2006, 07:42 AM »

System now flying along and seems stable.

Well done!
Hope the new box satisfies you for as long as possible

4645

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you know someone that just hates Clippy?

« on: November 11, 2006, 07:37 AM »

Droll. Whenever I saw Clippy I used to think to myself - what's that word beginning with f... u... um... oh yes -

n

4646

General Software Discussion / Re: Office 2007 has been RTM'd

« on: November 09, 2006, 06:30 PM »

OldElmerFudd: where about 10 of the 15 customizations possible are accessed. Trouble is, ALL your legacy stuff is loaded onto the "Add-In" tab

Thanks for the response. Doesn't sound encouraging... I can see 2003 staying around on my system for a while yet.

4647

General Software Discussion / Re: "Mouser": a new concept of a keyboard mouse.

« on: November 09, 2006, 03:56 PM »

I could stand for an option to go into direct mouse control mode (control the cursor directly with the arrow keys) for more tedius actions, but generally speaking this thing has a lot of potential to elminate mouse usage.  I'm liking it!

-allen (November 09, 2006, 02:29 PM)

Sorry to jump in, but have you seen/tried Numpad Mouse version 0.6c?
http://www.xs4all.nl/~zwitser1/kalvin/Numpad_Mouse_download.html

4648

General Software Discussion / Re: Office 2007 has been RTM'd

« on: November 09, 2006, 12:00 PM »

OldElmerFudd: I've been beta testing Office 2007 for a while. It's a BIG change.

I've not tried 2007 but I suspect I'll have to switch at some point. Nor have I been following its evolution, except in the most casual way.
I read somewhere that it'll be "difficult" to customize its toolbars/menus.
Like many people the first thing I do with any MS-Office product is set up the toolbars to show just the stuff I use most (and/or for which I most often forget the hot-keys).
Tell me, in your experience, should I really anticipate "difficulty" modifying toolbars/menus when using 2007?

4649

Living Room / Re: 1 Sheet of Paper

« on: November 08, 2006, 03:14 PM »

Speaking for myself, I'm drawing a blank.

4650

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Quick Thumbnail (an online approach)

« on: November 07, 2006, 04:27 PM »

Very nice! One can 'mix and match' just about any combination.
It's hard to see how you could improve it much more (unless you can edit out the image of my thumb over the lens).