Messages

6451

General Software Discussion / Re: fucking site it's a rip offf

« on: October 28, 2005, 12:44 PM »

Hi Kevin,

Another nice link! I was fortunate enough to have lived near Duxford in the UK while I was working on my (as yet unfinished/forgotten) PhD and spent many a weekend taking advantage of the student discount at the air museum there. FANTASTIC. I attended three airshows and will never be the same... it's one thing to read about the "song of a Merlin" and quite another to hear it.

Sadly, back home in Canada there are far fewer opportunities to witness such magic. Occasionally, the local air show brings in a Mustang and I can get my fix. My father has also been involved with a local group working to restore a Mk. IX Spitfire (http://www.y2kspitfire.com/), so there is hope for me yet! I've just noticed that they used part of one of my dad's paintings on the opening page and the whole thing displays when you hover over "contacts". I'll have to let him know - he'll be thrilled!
 
Best,

Mike

6452

General Software Discussion / Re: fucking site it's a rip offf

« on: October 28, 2005, 09:33 AM »

Hi kfitting,

The giveaway is the assymmetry of the underwing radiator and oil cooler (long tube shaped apparatus under the left (port) wing in the picture). On the Mk VII and above the cooling system was redesigned resulting in a symmetrical arrangement with the radiators under both wings being larger and rectangular (as in the one under the right (starboard) wing in Stefan's picture). The Mk IX is the most numerous of all the Spitfires (sort of the equivalent of the P-51D in that regard) and the first that you commonly see with the redesigned cooling system. Thanks for the link to www.airliners.net, by the way, I'd not come across that one before. Very impressive.

Carol, I had completely forgotten about Bridget Jone's Diary! You're right, though, anyone who has seen it should be able to figure out what "fw" stands for. I'm laughing all over again.

Thanks,

Mike

6453

General Software Discussion / Re: replace cmd

« on: October 27, 2005, 11:56 PM »

Wow - nice, I really do learn something new every day!

6454

General Software Discussion / Re: fucking site it's a rip offf

« on: October 27, 2005, 10:29 PM »

Just a note to Carol - love the "Do you think fw is an appropriate set of initials" comment. I don't imagine anyone who is either not English or has not spent any time there will get it, but I had a good laugh (and I think that you are on to something, too)!

Also, to kfitting, notice another of the FW190 nemeses in the upper-mid right of the picture - Spitfire, though a pre-Mk9 by the look of things...

6455

General Software Discussion / Re: replace cmd

« on: October 26, 2005, 08:47 PM »

Good suggestion (from jpfx). To do this under both Win2k and WinXP is a bit of a bugger, though. For info on how to do it, check out the faq at the metapad site: www.liquidninja.com.

Here's how to do it for XP: http://www.liquidnin...metapad/faq.html#Q28
Here's Win2k: http://www.liquidnin...metapad/faq.html#Q17

You can substitute cmd.exe for notepad.exe and follow the successfully follow the instructions (I think ).

6456

General Software Discussion / Re: How about a list of Commercial to Open Source Applications

« on: October 21, 2005, 03:38 PM »

I love this idea! We could start with the opensource/freeware category winners of the various reviews. E.g. Tugzip for archiving and build from there.

Just my 2 bits...

6457

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to browse thru my documents (pdfs, pics, word, rtf, and so on...) ...

« on: October 15, 2005, 05:30 PM »

Hi Elpresi,

Just curious about the outcome of your quest to find a solution to your problem?

Mike

6458

Official Announcements / Re: Free commercial licenses of ALZip for DonationCoder.com charter/honorary members

« on: October 15, 2005, 04:13 PM »

Hi Renegade,

This reply is a bit late - I spent most of the last four or five days troubleshooting problems with my WinXP installation (as it turned out, it was Yahoo Desktop Search indexing my drive that was causing my problems - including BSOD).

Regarding the license error that I reported, I am running Maxthon behind ZoneAlarm Pro (latest build) and access the Internet via a proxy (GhostSurf Platinum). However, I did try disabling the firewall and the proxy with no luck, though as I stated, registration did work despite the error message as I received my license via e-mail within about 5 minutes.

I was in Seoul - Mapo, Chongno-3-ga and finally Kil-dong, though I spent the entire four years working for Sisa-yong-o-sa in Chongno. I really miss the markets and hiking in the mountains outside Seoul. My wife, my mother-in-law and our pug used to go for long walks and picnics on Sundays. Somehow, we never find time for that kind of outing now that we've settled in Canada (Vancouver Island). Strange, because nature is so accessible here. I guess we just take it for granted.

Anyway, I will definitely look you up next time I'm in Korea. I am craving al-tang and Cass lager. Strange, but true.

Best,

Mike

6459

Find And Run Robot / Re: ActiveWords and Find&Run Robot

« on: October 13, 2005, 12:09 PM »

Have to agree with momonan - AW seems to be slower than F&RR in performing any operation related to opening an app/email/webpage. I think, though, that if you set easy to remember words for apps, the time differences between the two are probably negligible. To open something up in F&RR I select my hotkey, the interface pops up, I start typing my search term ("out" should bring up a list containing both Outlook and Outlook Express) and then click on the link for the app I am after to open it up. In AW I simply type in my AW and wait for it to be recognised and then opened. Six of one, half a dozen of the other (I think) - with resepct to the time involved. In one scenario, you are an active participant, in the other you are more passive... Being passive, the wait seems more annoying, somehow.

Just my two bits. I think, again, that F&RR strengths are: simplicity, power, and a very small resource footprint. It is more suited to what I was after when I first purchased AW. Once you start using AW, though, it's hard to go without it. I keep using my wife's notebook and being ticked off when I can't simply type in a word and have an app open up for me I had loaded AppRocket on her machine to get around this (as I have a license for it and have uninstalled it from my machine) but I have found it to be resource intensive and obtrusive, particularly at startup as it indexes the drive. It's gone from her machine, too. Maybe I should load F&RR on it instead...

6460

Find And Run Robot / ActiveWords and Find&Run Robot

« on: October 12, 2005, 10:24 PM »

Hi Mouser,

in another thread (https://www.donation...hp?topic=752.new#new), you asked for ActiveWords users' impressions of that program in comparison to F&RR. One area that I feel makes ActiveWords amazing is the fact that there is no need to call up the program's interface in order to enter text (of course, this requires that the program be running in the background, monitoring your keystrokes). That is, if I want to open up Outlook I simply type "out" (sans quotes) and hit the spacebar twice and voila, Outlook opens. There is no user interface to interact with - I just type "out" and it opens - regardless of what app is active on my computer.

Now, I don't feel that F&RR should necessarily try to emulate ActiveWords in this regard. The result of the keyboard monitoring is that there are four AW processes running using up almost 40 MB of RAM versus F&RR which consumes at most about 18 MB RAM (more like between 3 and 8 on average) on my system.

At the end of the day, AW and F&RR do different things - even if there is some overlap. AW corrects all my spelling as I type, no matter what the application, it will insert huge chunks of boilerplate text into anything that I am typing - in any app, it will open applications using both preconfigured and user configured "active" words (see above), it will respond to an active word by opening up my webbrowser to a specific page, send an e-mail to a recipient in response to an active word (you can set it up to open up a blank e-mail for addressing and editing, open a blank e-mail addressed to a specific addressee, and open up a pre-authored e-mail either addressed to specific recipient(s) or with the address field blank, etc.).

This doesn't even cover what activewords can do. I use about 10% of the feature set and only understand a fraction of them... It's very, very powerful.

F&RR does some of the same things with a much smaller footprint. I think that that is its attraction. It is very elegant and inobtrusive. I wouldn't try to move it much beyond a file and program launcher. What I find amazing about it is that it is so quick without resorting to indexing. AW doesn't index the harddrive either, but neither does it search the way F&RR does (well, maybe it does - who knows? If it does I am unaware of it...).

Hope these very general comments are useful. I am sure that there are others reading this forum who are better able to comment.

Keep up the good work! I love what you've done with F&RR so far.

Mike

6461

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: I love the Bulk Rename Utility!

« on: October 09, 2005, 04:17 PM »

I, too, love Bulk Rename Utility. I've been using it for about two years - settled on it after having trialed a number of other Renaming apps and purchasing one of them. BRU is easily the best of the bunch.

I used to have three different renaming utilities installed so that all contingencies were covered. I no longer find this necessary with BRU installed - it's met all of my needs thus far. Of course, other people's mileage may vary...

As Zaine's post implies - Jim is very, very approachable.

6462

Official Announcements / Re: Free commercial licenses of ALZip for DonationCoder.com charter/honorary members

« on: October 08, 2005, 06:00 PM »

Hi Renegade,

Thanks! I just took advantage of your offer. Strangely, I kept getting error messages about visiting from an unauthorized site but have since received confirmation that my registration code will be issued. Don't know if this is an issue at your end or mine.

How's life in Seoul? I spent four years there ('96 through 2000) and have fond memories of it. I quite often think about returning. My boys are half Korean and their hal-monie lives in Seoul, so my wife and I might just do it!

Mike

6463

Best Archive Tool / Re: More Archive Reviews?

« on: October 08, 2005, 05:19 PM »

The $100 isn't for a zip utility, per se - PentaWare (www.pentazip.com ) has rolled its archiving app, PentaZip into a File/Multi-Media Management app (i.e. a Windows Explorer replacement). PentaZip stand-alone is still available at around the $40 mark... Haven't used it but trialed PentaSuite a couple of releases ago. It didn't last long, though I have no firm recollection as to why. Well, ok, hazarding a guess, it likely had a lot to do with its price and the fact that I was already smitten with Directory Opus 6 (www.gpsoft.com.au)...

Having said the above, like Zaine, I was surprised to read several discussions of PentaSuite (PCMag comes to mind) that started with something about the purveyors 'of a "well-known archive app" now offering a File Management solution', given that I had NEVER heard of PentaZip before.

6464

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to browse thru my documents (pdfs, pics, word, rtf, and so on...) ...

« on: October 06, 2005, 05:28 PM »

Glad to be of help! Let us know how you make out with this.

Best,

Mike

6465

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to browse thru my documents (pdfs, pics, word, rtf, and so on...) ...

« on: October 04, 2005, 04:36 PM »

Hi elpresi,

If you have a demo of Dopus installed, head over to either of the user forums that I listed above - the regulars on both of them are amazing at helping people solve problems/wring the maximum out of Dopus. Dopus is amazingly configureable and I am sure that there is a way to do what you wish. Describe what you would like it to do and someone will tell you how. At the very least you'll be given a definitive answer about its ability (or lack thereof) to be set up as you wish.

As an aside, Dopus ships with a plug-in that allows you to use the Stellent viewers to view files from within Dopus. I purchased QuickView Plus 8 to allow me to do this about two years ago; today you can get the same filters for free by installing Yahoo Desktop Search and configuring the plug-in to use the viewers that come with YDS. You don't even have to keep YDS installed - just move the Stellent directory out of the Yahoo folder and direct Dopus to use that, then uninstall YDS. Simple (but be sure to install the viewer expansion pack as well - before you uninstall Yahoo).

6466

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Anybody know of a deal on PerfectDisk?

« on: October 04, 2005, 11:17 AM »

I use Diskeeper Pro 9 and am very happy with it... However, before purchasing, I did trial PerfectDisk and as a result of registering the trial I receive fairly frequent offers to purchase PerfectDisk at a discount (they now go directly into my junk mail folder and are deleted so I don't know what the current offer is...). They also offer anywhere from 20 to 35% discounts for people cross-upgrading from registered versions of their competitors' products (particularly Diskeeper).

If you've registered the trial, someone in sales will likely be in touch with you with an offer to purchase at a discount. If having a fully registered version isn't urgent, I'd wait for a few weeks and see what happens.

6467

Find And Run Robot / Re: v1.07.15 beta

« on: October 02, 2005, 11:37 PM »

You've also listed kbstart in the alternate programs section of the help file twice!

6468

Find And Run Robot / Re: v1.07.15 beta

« on: October 02, 2005, 08:14 PM »

Hi Mouser,

Just tried your suggestion re: focus preservation and wasn't able to alter ALT-Spacebar's behaviour...

OK just tried unloading ActiveWords and guess what? ALT-Spacebar works every time. While I mentioned that I run it in my initial post, I forgot to *actually* try exiting it. Typical.

Problem solved (at least on my installation).

Thanks again,

Mike

6469

Find And Run Robot / Re: v1.07.15 beta

« on: October 02, 2005, 07:33 PM »

PS the Break key works like a charm!

6470

Find And Run Robot / Re: v1.07.15 beta

« on: October 02, 2005, 07:25 PM »

Hi Mouser,

I *hope* this proves to be a helpful post... I've reinstalled F&RR (1.07.17 ) after a considerable period of running without it (I run ActiveWords). I am finding that when I try to use ALT-Spacebar to launch the main window, the main window will flash onto my screen and then (apparently) close. I've found that I need to keep holding down the ALT key while clicking on the menu bar of the main window in order to get it to remain in focus. I've also found that, at times, the main window is available in the background (but is not indicated as such via ALT-Tab) and that if I go to my desktop it will be there. Odd.

I am running XP Pro Sp-2 on a Centrino notebook (first generation) with a gig of RAM.

Thanks for a fantastic app!

Mike

6471

General Software Discussion / Re: I want to browse thru my documents (pdfs, pics, word, rtf, and so on...) ...

« on: October 02, 2005, 04:56 PM »

Hi Jeff,

To get the view that is shown in the screenshot from the Dopus website, you need to select View->Flat View->Grouped... At least, on my installation that replicates the screenshot nicely. The real problem, as far as I can tell, is getting Flat View to "stick", i.e. to set it up as the default view so that each time you change folders you don't have to re-select flat view as an option from the view menu. I am reasonably confident that this can be done (as I have mine set up for details view by default I am not surprised that Dopus reverts to this each time I change folder...), but it might take a bit of work to do. The users' forums are excellent and no doubt someone would be able to tell you how to do this.

http://groups.yahoo....group/DOpus/messages (beginner's forum)
http://resource.dopus.com/ (expert forum - the developers hang out here and are regular posters/respondents).

Mike

6472

Best Archive Tool / Re: New Review (09/05/05) - Best Archive Tool

« on: September 06, 2005, 11:44 AM »

I'd second what Carol (and Zaine) have to say about StuffIt and Office integration - it quite often "breaks" Outlook and is a PIA in its habit of insisting on opening a toolbar on a separate row. This was the case in version 8 and in the latest version, 9. For those of us who like to customise and set our toolbars this is unacceptable.

OT but why hasn't Microsoft given users of Office 2003 (which I've just upgraded to) the option to lock their toolbars?

6473

Best Archive Tool / Re: Archive Tool Review's Finishing Touches

« on: September 06, 2005, 11:40 AM »

Yeah, you've set a new standard for thoroughness! I read it with real interest yesterday and meant to post my kudos to you last night. Let's all raise a glass - cheers! Well done!

6474

General Review Discussion / Re: Free PDF tools review?

« on: September 04, 2005, 04:14 PM »

I'd be very interested in this review. However, I'd like to see the "cheaper" shareware alternatives to Adobe Acrobat  - products by Fineprint, Nitro, Scansoft, and Jaws for example - reviewed as well. I'm curious about how these compare to each other and most importantly which is the best alternative to Acrobat.

6475

Living Room / Re: Gmail Invitations — for anyone who still doesn't have one

« on: August 24, 2005, 04:51 PM »

Not to co-opt this thread/Zaine's offer but I have 50 to give away as well (they've been sitting there for months as I've long since run out of friends to annoy with invites!).

If Zaine has run out, e-mail me and I'll send you an invite.

Mike