Messages

7626

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use a password manager? if not, maybe you should

« on: August 31, 2005, 03:11 AM »

Another vote for RoboForm - it also gets better all the time with new bits and bobs added (like its customisable search engine in the current version).

Actually the application is so good it is one reason why Opera will never become a regular use browser for me (however good it is).

RoboForm works great in Internet Explorer and Mozilla based browsers (inc. Firefox and Netscape).

Also so far updates and upgrades have been free after the initial purchase of the Pro version.

7627

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

« on: August 31, 2005, 03:06 AM »

i'm actually quite fond of winzip, but i will not pay a yearly update for such a thing.

-mouser (August 31, 2005, 02:11 AM)

Quite - the whole point about paying for something that most used for free was that you got free updates.

Sounds like the company have stabbed themselves in the foot.

I'll be sticking to the version I have got and if I need updates I'll continue to use WinRAR.

7628

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« on: August 31, 2005, 03:00 AM »

This is precisely my gripe with copy protection - the only people actually inconvenienced are the genuine users. ANyone who wants a cracked version, illegal serial numbers or a key generator can find them easy enough in any of the major search engines!!

7629

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« on: August 30, 2005, 07:42 PM »

If anyone is interested here is a useful list of freeware system monitoring tools (not just Temp/Fans but all sorts)

http://www.softpedia...atList/92,1,1,1.html

7630

Living Room / Re: ad-free version of Opera,one day only!

« on: August 30, 2005, 06:17 PM »

It'll annoy a lot of people if they do!

Don't you think they have discovered they are fighting a losing battle if they are going to charge for something that is available for free from lots of other sources - how much do you bet that within the next year Opera will be a free or donation based download.

7631

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« on: August 30, 2005, 04:16 PM »

Haven't heard back from him yet (!)

Actually I have version 4.1 and have now managed to reinstall a really old version (Feb 2003) but with works with my mobo. The key supplied doesn't even work with later versions of 4.1

Alternatives ??

Motherboard Monitor http://mbm.livewiredev.com/ works but hasn't seen an update in over 12 months, and last I heard had stopped all development now.

SpeedFan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php has similar functions and is still being updated. I haven't tried the latest build yet but it used to work well, and if your system is running cool can seriously quieten down noisy fans.

I think I'll go back to speedfan - it's free and works well. HMonitor can stuff it .... and I've started posting reviews on download sites to that effect!

Anyone know any other good alternatives?

7632

Find And Run Robot / Re: Feature Request v2 - time to get started

« on: August 30, 2005, 02:13 PM »

It would be usefull to go one stage further with the URL building for searching so that:

"wik NASA" Moon Landings would generate the url with "NASA+Moon+Landings" as the search string, otherwise they will be restricted to one word searches.

I suppose though I am being lazy - no real reason why I can't type the + signs 

7633

Living Room / Re: ad-free version of Opera,one day only!

« on: August 30, 2005, 10:04 AM »

Great - I sent an email too and haven't yet had a reply so this was a great find

7634

General Software Discussion / Re: HMonitor ... a warning ...

« on: August 30, 2005, 07:23 AM »

That is exactly the situation.

I emailed him again saying it was outrageous and verging on illegal and just got a reply - there is obviously some sort of confusion.

I'll let you know the outcome.

7635

General Software Discussion / HMonitor ... a warning ...

« on: August 30, 2005, 06:06 AM »

Just had a bad experience and felt the need to express myself.

I purchased a copy of HMonitor http://www.hmonitor.com/ a while back.

It is a key based system (which is fair enough) but be warned if you buy this software.

If at some future date you need to reinstall Windows the key will not work and if a new version is released the author will not supply a new code unless you buy the version upgrade. I have not changed my hardware so I do not need an upgrade, or gain anything if I do.

This would be fair enough if I upgrade my hardware and need the later version for support but I don't !!

To my mind this is the worst of practices (and pretty unique in my experience).

Effectively you are held hostage to upgrades.

If you want a hardware monitor I would suggest looking elsewhere !

7636

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request for 3rd party freeware tool configurations

« on: August 30, 2005, 02:50 AM »

Thanks for the ideas - I actually have copies of Visual Studio 6 Pro and C++ Builder Pro (an old version 4 copy).

The trouble I have is getting started - there just seems to be a much larger base of knowledge that you need these days - and it isn't made easier by all the acronyms everyone uses and never explains !!

I have been browsing round the ImageMagick site and came across this link:

http://software.news...sid=05/07/01/1959251

which may provide a quick way to produce animation output from Screenshot Captor if you put in a GIF timed capture sequence feature.

7637

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request for 3rd party freeware tool configurations

« on: August 30, 2005, 02:35 AM »

PS: Did you notice the license stuff on the ImagMagick website:

"ImageMagick is free software: it is delivered with full source code and can be freely used, copied, modified and distributed."

Sounds ideal !

Now all I have to do is try and get my rapidly aging brain back into programming mode ! (It's been a good few years now and it is difficult to know how to get started again in a Windows environment). Mouser, what do you use for coding?

7638

Screenshot Captor / Re: Request for 3rd party freeware tool configurations

« on: August 30, 2005, 02:23 AM »

WOW - imagemagik has enough to keep any command line junkie happy for life !!

7639

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Xnview vs. Irfan View

« on: August 30, 2005, 02:18 AM »

Yes it is a good app but there is no way (that I have spotted anyway) that you can mix and match formats on a single sheet or rearrange the layout of a sheet.

A really easy template builser would be the icing on the cake.

The other thing I find a bit frustrating with the Canon software is the CD/DVD disc printing.

The CD software is a bit basic (to say the least) but almost no labelling programs support direct print CDs (rather than labels).

I have tried to produce a suitable template for other software but it is really hard to get the disc accurately registered and every test means the plastic carrier comes out with wet ink over it and a duff CD. Plus every bit of software needs a slightly different template.

Having said that I shouldn't complain too much as I know my lovely printer can't print discs in the US because of the Digital Right brigade putting pressure on Canon to restrict that feature!

7640

Find And Run Robot / Re: F&R fans get an update

« on: August 30, 2005, 02:10 AM »

I wouldn't want to use existing indexes - I have tried all of the desktop search utilities and don't really like any of them. They gobble up disk space like no tomorrow and always want to reindex when you least want it.

WRT updating an index for F&R I would have thought either manual updating or using the schedule mananger would work OK.

Unless you constantly install and uninstall new software that need to be accessed via F&R I wouldn't have thought the index would need to be updated too often.

It would be nice if files (such as .exe) could be dragged and dropped onto the F&R window too to produce a button quickly without having to search..

7641

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Xnview vs. Irfan View

« on: August 30, 2005, 02:00 AM »

I don't think there is one!

I have Adobe PhotoShop and you can do just about anything you like with that, but not without some effort.

There doesn't seem to be a cheap flexible printing utility for photos etc. that I can find. FotoSlat is OK but nothing terribly special and Shell Picture makes a stab at it and provides a quick (if somewhat dirty) interface for getting quick output.

If you find something let me know

7642

Find And Run Robot / Re: Feature Request v2 - time to get started

« on: August 29, 2005, 05:37 PM »

The configurable launcher works quite well from RoboForms new tool bar search function. You just set up the format of the search URL and then have a drop down list of configured URLs by just typing what you want to look for. It is also useful as it keeps a search histroy too - so you can easily look for items from different URLs by a single click.

This is certainly available in RoboForm Pro, but I have no easy way of checking the free version of RoboForm (it doesn't say this is restricted on the website). RoboForm is a brilliant password/identity manager and notes store and worth getting if you don't use it already. It also works well in Explorer, Firefox and Mozilla and other browsers too that I haven't tried like Opera.

See http://www.roboform.com/ for further details.

Here are the URLs I currently have set up in Roboform and they really speed up my shopping!

http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=
http://www.google.co...&oe=UTF-8&q=
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=
http://www.bbc.co.uk...p;go=homepage&q=
http://news.google.com/news?q=
http://search.yahoo....&ei=UTF-8&p=
http://news.search.y...news?ei=UTF-8&p=
http://search.msn.com/results.asp?q=
http://www.amazon.co...blended&keyword=
http://www.amazon.co...blended&keyword=
http://dogbert.abebo...amp;sortby=2&kn=
http://www.musicroom...ucts&searchtext=
http://www.play.com/...=9&searchstring=
http://www.playusa.c...ch&searchstring=
http://www.dvdpacifi...om/search.asp?title=
http://www.happyhunter.co.uk/
http://www.m-w.com/c...k=Dictionary&va=
http://www.altavista.com/web/results?q=
http://web.ask.com/web?q=
http://a9.com/
http://www.alltheweb...arch?cs=utf-8&q=
http://www.mamma.com...a?qtype=0&query=

7643

Cheat Sheeter / Any progress here?

« on: August 29, 2005, 10:24 AM »

I had a look to download the early alpha and the link seems to have disappeared (just get a page not on this server error).

Any progress ?

7644

Screenshot Captor / Re: Bugs 'n' suggestion

« on: August 29, 2005, 08:42 AM »

I like the idea of a movie mode too ... this could be incorporated into a GIF animation file type.

7645

Find And Run Robot / Re: F&R fans get an update

« on: August 29, 2005, 08:41 AM »

This version seems to work well for me.

Note I had no probs using the Help button ???

Couple of suggestions (speedwise). I like to search Program files too but I have such a lot of stuff it is really slow.

(1) How about in the next version allowing F&R to take a snapshot of all pattern-matching searched for in Program files and Windows folders and use that snapshot for speed. An update button could be included to regenerate the snapshots whenever you want (including if pattern-matching is altered).

(2) How about allowing the launch list items to be edited? That way for example an EXE file name could be replaced by something more meaningful.

(3) How about the use buttons being put on a sepatare toolbar with a config button at the end. This would save the search bar being altered in size and remove the need for a Configuartion context menu.

7646

Find And Run Robot / Re: F&R fans get an update

« on: August 28, 2005, 08:58 AM »

Looks the same to me (but does still say .22)

7647

Image Manager Shootout / Re: Xnview vs. Irfan View

« on: August 28, 2005, 03:02 AM »

Don't forget IrfanView can be integrated into Windows Explorer Shell too.

This may have been mentioned but if it has I missed it.

For details see: http://www.baxbex.com/products.html

The tool is at the bottom of the page.

The other tool I use is ShellPicture (also on BaxBex website). The review mentioned this and asked does anyone pay for it? Well, er, yes I did. I find it extremely useful and the printing facilities (though not totally extensive) are quite handy as are the instant format conversion from windows explorer. See screen shots below.

7648

Image Manager Shootout / Re: The new addendum to the ACDSee Review..

« on: August 28, 2005, 02:51 AM »

I agree too - and if it is any interest to people I found pretty much the same problem with their technical support.

I use a Canaon Digital Rebel/300D and the RAW files appear with very odd colour casts. It might be a colour management problem on my system but it doesn't happen in other software (Such as RAW essentials). Having tried to get support from them to sort out the problem it became very clear that they weren't interested in helping - their ultimate solution was wait for the next patch to be issued! Now that there have been a couple of updates the problem is still unresolved.

Don't get me wrong I still use ACDSee, but not for RAW processing! If you want to use ACDSee for RAW processing make sure you do a thorough evaluation before you part with cash, and don't expect problems to be fixed in any timely fashion.

As someone who has bought most of the ACDSee product line in every version from 3 to 7 (inlcuding FotoSlate etc. - note the PowerPack doesn't include the latest version - if you want that it is a $19.95 upgrade) I still think the program is probably the best available, but their support and response to customers is very hit and miss at best.

7649

Find And Run Robot / Re: F&R fans get an update

« on: August 27, 2005, 11:46 AM »

Thanks

7650

Find And Run Robot / Re: F&R fans get an update

« on: August 27, 2005, 11:17 AM »

PS Just one thought that has been niggling ...

When the app has default search folders can I suggest that the Start Menu folder have the Program subdirectory dropped, otherwise anything in the top level of the Start Menu is missed.