topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Friday March 29, 2024, 9:59 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - wraith808 [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: prev1 ... 366 367 368 369 370 [371] 372 373 374 375 376 ... 403next
9251
I think the key in a focus group is to use it as you would any other device.

9252
As for the engineer, he definitely deserves to get fired. Of all places to bring such a device the pub was not one of them! I bet he just wanted to show it off.

Why was the pub not one of them?  To get real-world usage, they have the focus group use the device as if it were their own phone.  Do you leave your phone at home just because you go to the pub?  And I doubt it was to show it off- I'm sure that is an actionable offense if you're in the focus group.  Read the original account of the finding of the phone- at first, until the person that found it actually took the cover off, they thought it was a 3G.

9253
I haven't heard about it, but IMO they deserve it.  As much as I might not approve of some of Apple's tactics, for Gizmodo to pay for a phone that they know was not the property of whom they were buying from was criminal.  And for them to post the follow up saying that they were trying to keep the engineer from getting fired was hypocrisy at its highest.  If they were really concerned about the engineer, they wouldn't have posted it, but would have done like several other news outlets and said that they would pass.  The guy was going to return the phone until he realized what he had- if Gizmodo hadn't put out their open bounty on Apple items, he might not have even tried to sell it.  Just my opinion, but this whole thing has rubbed me the wrong way.

the phone was accidentally left at a bar in Redwood City, Calif., last month by an Apple software engineer

that's the unbelievable part :)



Well, apparently to get real world data, they let engineers use disguised versions of their upcoming products.  Makes a certain amount of sense, really.

9254
What Apple are essentially doing is turning computers and related gadgets into consumer items like cd players, TVs etc which "just work". You cannot really do that without controlling the hardware and the software and without severely limiting consumer options. Earlier generations (well, at least it will be earlier generations to a lot of people here) of geeks had to spend their time with soldering irons or in garages with oil and spanners.

The Microsoft stage succeeded in separating OS from hardware in computers and thereby provided the incentive and impetus for computers to get very cheap. Apple have now been able to take advantage of the cheapness by giving a lot of people what they think they want. Designer labels are the order of the day, and that is what Apple have created.

Both parts of this are quite true, and show sort of what we have to look for in regards to the phoneos wars. I'm a tech person, and have resisted the call of the iphone for a while, but I finally gave in. Why?  Because, in the end, a phone is a phone.  I don't care what you add to it, it has to be able to make calls, and do so *reliably*.  No matter what apps are available, or what cool things you can do- if you can't make and receive calls when you need to, it's not a phone.  This is also one of the reasons that I've dealt with the limitations and haven't jailbroken it.  Because I have too many memories of answering a call and my phone locking up.  Or having no ability to make calls until I 'rebooted' my phone.  I can count the number of times this has happened on my iPhone on one hand with 3 fingers to spare.

As far as the second part, it bodes ill for the android platform.  When the G1 came out, I was impressed.  It was functional, and the experience seemed very good for a first generation device.  Then the G1 without the keyboard came out- and I was still impressed.  Then a plethora of devices followed and I saw the same fracturing of the platform start that happened on every other device with an open (or semi-open) platform.  If you don't control the hardware, then anyone can decide to add or remove features based not upon the end user experience or solidity, but upon gaining market share and making money.  And whenever you are dealing with a money-making proposition, this will become paramount- it's the nature of the companies, if not all of the people that drive them.

9255
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 25, 2010, 07:56 PM »
The thread from their website:
I'm on my 30 day trial, and this 'feature' may be a deal breaker. The iPhone app for SugarSync limits the size of the files you can view. This is potentially a deal breaker since one of my purposes of investing in this or DropBox was to view documents on the road. DropBox had no problem displaying the same document. I don't see why SugarSync would limit their iPhone app in the size of the document that you can view. (For the record, it was an rpg book- it was 40.3 MB, and they are regularly that size). If this limit is a hard one that can't be changed (or that you're not open to changing), then as much as I like SugarSync's features, if it can't handle my workflow, then I can't use it...

Thoughts?
   
   
Re: iPhone Document Size Limit
Posted on 4/25/2010 7:41 PM    
We put some final limit based on empirical data. It's possible that more recent versions of the iPhone system are more stable and with more free memory available for apps. We will make a change int he next release to just give you a warning and you will be on your own. Thanks for the feedback.

9256
It's not happening *now*, but it has happened in the past.  And sometimes there *is* no other way to make extra money over what you're doing, so perhaps games are your only escape from the doldrums of life.  My point is that everyone isn't in the same boat, so to suggest that these are never needed when I know from personal experience that they work is sort of disingenuous.  Are they a replacement for having good parts- no.  But if you don't have the parts or the money, they are definitely somewhere you can look...

9257
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 24, 2010, 08:11 PM »
I don't know if I should post this as a separate thread, but I figured that for now I'd start it here.  I decided to try sugarsync, and I'll be posting my experiences- good and bad.

After my sign up, a couple of bad experiences already, though nothing major.

1. SugarSync seems to keep track of your folders, which is what I alluded to when talking about how to copy magic briefcase above.  This is really cool, though it seems to have a couple of rough edges.  I'd synced a folder from somewhere, and wanted to move/rename the folder (I wanted to move it back into the dropbox folder- just in case).  I removed it from sugarsync, but once I'd c&p it to where I wanted, it reappeared in SugarSync.  Bad sign there.  As sugarsync continutally talked about 'merging' folders when I synced to an existing folder, I was leery of this.  But after trying to get the new folder to sync in a different location several times (by deleting the local folder and re syncing to the new location, moving the location, and other means) and seeing that it didn't work, I finally gave in and just copied the old folder to the new location, and letting the files merge.  It merged ok, but I'm still taken aback that I couldn't disassociate SugarSync from the original folder so  I could keep an extra backup.

2. The iPhone app for SugarSync limits the size of the files you can view.  This is potentially a deal breaker since one of my purposes of investing in this or DropBox was to view documents on the road.  DropBox had no problem displaying the same app.  I don't see why SugarSync would limit their iPhone app in the size of the document that you can view.  (For the record, it was an rpg book- it was 40.3 MB, and they are regularly that size).  I'm definitely reporting that on their forums- if they insist on this limit, then as much as I like SugarSync's features, if it can't handle my workflow, then I can't use it, so this will be cut a bit short...

9258
Though the essence of your point may be correct, it doesn't take into account something that hits many gamers, especially in these times- economics.  Sometimes you can't afford to upgrade- do you then stop gaming until you can?  I think that there are quite a few cases where extra processes can mean the difference between a playable game experience and not, and I've been in that boat where I'm trying to squeeze a few extra FPS out of my system.

9259
Thanks for information!  :Thmbsup:
In turn I wish to advise another useful resource with possibility to create any your form. Besides in php forms tutorials it's possible to find information about opportunities of e-mail creatig on a site by means PHP Forms i.t.c. Informational articles are wrote by developers by this web resource. I think this is advantage.  :D

I am agree with it. Form builder is very convenient software for creating online invitations, online surveys and so one. There are many companies which develop form builder, I know one of example of form builder yet.

The stilted english in both of these is very close in their writing.  And for the one with two posts, the other post is a non-specific post which could be put in any thread and make just as much (or as little) sense.  Bots, I think?

9260
I purchased the appnitro stuff for my website a while ago.  I haven't used it in a 'production' environment yet, but what I've seen, I like.

9261
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 22, 2010, 01:44 PM »
One thing I just found out that I wasn't aware of: SugarSync allows a 30 day trial before they charge you for anything.  DropBox doesn't give you this trial period.  On the other hand, DropBox allows you to pay via Paypal, though with the Secure Plug-in on Paypal, this isn't as much of an advantage as it used to be.

I also noticed something else as I'm looking harder at the TOS of the services because of my intent to upgrade.  Dropbox includes some troubling language in their TOS:

Dropbox reserves the right to terminate Free Accounts at any time, with or without notice. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, if a Free Account is inactive for ninety (90) days, then Dropbox may delete any or all of Your Files without providing additional notice.

More language:
By placing Your Files in your public folder, you hereby grant all other Dropbox users and the public a non-exclusive, non-commercial, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your public folder. In other words, a file in your public folder can be used by anyone, for any purpose except  commercial use.

And:
You represent and warrant that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents and permissions to grant the licenses that both your public and shared folders require, as described above. Please note that moving all or portions of Your Files from your public folders does not revoke the license granted to those individuals who previously accessed those files.

You should be aware that Files may be protected by intellectual property rights which are owned by the Dropbox user whose folder (public or shared) that File resides in. You may not modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the content(s) (either in whole or in part) of another user's shared folder unless you have been specifically told that you may do so by the rightful owner of that File, in a separate agreement.

You acknowledge and agree that you should not rely on the Site, Content, Files and Services for any reason. You further acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for maintaining and protecting all data and information that is stored, retrieved or otherwise processed by the Site, Content, Files or Services. Without limiting the foregoing, you will be responsible for all costs and expenses that you or others may incur with respect to backing up, and restoring and/or recreating any data and information that is lost or corrupted as a result of your use of the Site, Content, Files and/or Services.

Backing up your music or videos (or as in my case - books)?  Might be interested in this bit:
You will only upload, post, submit or otherwise transmit data and/or files: (i) that you have the lawful right to use, copy, distribute, transmit, or display; or (ii) that does not infringe the intellectual property rights or violate the privacy rights of any third party (including, without limitation, copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other intellectual property right, or moral right or right of publicity). Dropbox has adopted and implemented a policy that permits the deletion of files that violate this policy, and that permits the termination in appropriate circumstances of the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe or are believed to be or are charged with repeatedly infringing the rights of copyright holders. Please see the Dropbox Copyright Policy for further information at http://www.dropbox.com/dmca.

Turning to SugarSync, I see that they have some of the same limitations on Free accounts
Free Accounts don't have all the features of Paid Accounts and are subject to limitations described in these Terms and as implemented by SugarSync from time to time. For example, you may have only one Free Account at a time and if you don't use the account for a period of 90 days or more (for example, no synching or back up of files for 90 days), your Free Account may be automatically terminated.

Their other limitations that would be of a similar vein to DropBox are less alarming, but still quite open to interpretation:
Your account and any specific URL associated with your account are for your individual use only. You may not resell accounts or any account features. You agree that you will not use the Service to disseminate any advertising, promotional materials, or spam. You acknowledge and agree that SugarSync reserves the right to establish limits on the number and size of messages transmitted through the Service and/or the size and number of Files that can be made available through a public link. You agree that you will not use the Software or Service to create, copy, store, transmit, share or distribute any Files, images, sounds, messages or other material which are obscene (as determined in SugarSync's sole discretion), harassing, racist, malicious, fraudulent or libelous, contain nudity, violate or infringe the rights of third parties, or expose SugarSync to any actual or potential civil or criminal liability. SugarSync reserves the right in its sole discretion to take any action that it deems necessary if you violate these Terms, including suspension or termination of your account.

And:
SugarSync respects the intellectual property of others, and we expect our users to do the same. SugarSync may suspend and/or terminate the accounts of users who infringe the rights of others. If you believe that your copyrights or other intellectual property rights have been infringed by postings of others through the Service, you should provide SugarSync's copyright agent with the following information:

    * an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
    * a description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
    * a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site;
    * your address, telephone number, and email address;
    * a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
    * a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf.

Thoughts?

9262
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 22, 2010, 12:23 PM »
This was a great review/comparison. A couple of things I'd like to clarify:
  • SugarSync may only support 2 desktops, but DropBox explicitly supports as many as you'd like.
  • DropBox does versioning. If make a change to one of those work files in the "briefcase", I can fall back to yesterday's version, for example. I don't know if SugarSync offers this.

Yes, SugarSync does support versioning.  And SugarSync Free only supports 2 desktops.  All paid versions support as many as you'd like.

9263
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 22, 2010, 10:28 AM »
What makes me most wary of this market is the sheer number of alternatives. Hard to see that they will all survive long-term, so I'd hate to get dependent on something that might go. Even the apparently successful ones may not be very profitable, so it is hard to predict which ones will keep going.

Well, the thing that I'm optimistic about is the fact that your data is still on your machine(s).  If dropbox went out of business today, it would be an inconvenience, not a major deal.  That's the reason that though I will use synchronizers, I won't use an online backup solution.  That's also the reason that I'm wary of dropping a lot of money on something for a yearly subscription.

9264
it takes so little to uninstall the thing and try again

While true, some people don't want to do this (as I found in another thread), and looking at it from a different perspective, I can see their point, if not necessarily agree with it.

9265
I never have thought it was about benefiting the end user - at least not exclusively.  In the end, most people want to find somewhere that they belong- and building a reputation goes towards that in large part.

When you think of the DC community, certain screen names, if not real life names come to mind.  Those have become associated with DC based upon interaction and reputation.  Not to say that this was self serving- in fact, it's just something that happens, and DCers tend to be more selfless than selfish.

But everything from titles to badges to post counts are the same sort of carrot type leading mechanism- to keep people invested in a particular community.

9266
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 21, 2010, 03:55 PM »
- Get more by either paying for it or sharing your hard drive.  Sharing your hard drive gets you Shared amount * %uptime.  So, sharing 10GB of space with 25% uptime gets you another 2.5GB totaling 3.5GB.  Also grants Pro status.

Hmmm... I don't care what kind of connection I have to the internet, or how much space I have, this makes me a bit leery of using it.  Who knows what might be shared using your hardware, and what kind of liability that puts you in danger of.  I might be a bit paranoid where that's concerned because of personal experience, but it screams DANGER to me.

Also, because you're using the HD space of unknown people which is in unknown conditions, unless they are stored more than once in your grid, if someone else's HD goes down, your files are FUBAR, aren't they?  And since LaCIE doesn't have control over the hardware that they're storing on, that's also a risk isn't it?  I might be overly cautious here... but I'm not feeling the love.

9267
I think in the installer it's quite likely that the two options for install use diverging paths... and it's quite possible that he forgot to duplicate the screen in both paths.  It's easy enough to do unintentionally.

9268
And this is the reason that a lot of people don't trust AV software- because the cure can be worse than the disease.  I'm more than a little bit upset with AVG that it deletes my NSIS files whenever they are found.

9269
meetingsense is very close to what I'm looking for.  I actually ran across it not soon after writing this email.  The other one, not so much.

I was also secretly hoping there would be a nice freeware one available.  I was also thinking that Infoqube can do this, but the only problem with that is that I would need to set it all up...it's not an out of the box solution.  Meetingsense looks really good, though.  I'm going to play with it.

This actually gives me a reason to look at outlook add-ins; something I've been wanting to do since a colleague had to make one at work.  I can't promise the timeline of it (my free time is pretty limited for such projects) but I was thinking that a simple outlook add-in that duplicates the offline portions of Meetingsense might be a real timesaver...

9270
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 21, 2010, 01:10 PM »
wraith808 - great comparative review.  I manage support at SugarSync and you're absolutely correct regarding locked files causing problems.  To be successful backing up data files, it's important to follow the software vendor's instructions to create a data backup file and let SugarSync back up the backup file. These products typically have the ability to adjust the frequency of backups. We talk about it here.

The reason for my post was to thank you for helping us improve our knowledgebase.  While we do have an article on how to move the Magic Briefcase , we only had a KB article with links to an FAQ about the limitations of our free 2GB plan.  I agree with you that it's important information, so we've created a dedicated article on the topic.

Debbie,

Thanks for dropping by!  I actually found that KB on the Magic Briefcase- it was how I figured out how to move it.  But I thought that there would be some indication either in the extensive tutorials that you provide (which are very nice, BTW) or in the regular documentation on how to move it.  I found the KB easy enough... but to include it in the regular documentation would be nice.

Thank you also for the thoughts on backing up data files.  I didn't think about doing it in that manner- it would indeed be a great accessory to a good backup scheme in that way.  I've only used DropBox for documents, which I've found no problems with.  I also don't have the situation where I edit in more than one location at once, though.

I just did a bit more research, and from what it appears, the perfect cloud solution just isn't there.
Have you looked at JungleDisk or any of the other Amazon S3 solutions?  I'd be curious to know where you find them failing.

I actually bought a license to JungleDisk back when we had a discount on DC.  I never used it though, similarly to how I've never used a lot of the solutions I have bought licenses for (AJC Active Backup, Stardock Keep Safe, Backup4All, Acronis TrueImage).  It's a matter of getting started. 

JungleDisk also puts me off with its pricing.  When something has you paying per GB of storage, per GB transferred, per download request, per upload request... it seems like too much.  And though it may be reasonable, not knowing how many upload/download requests and such ahead of time that I'm likely to use is frankly scary.  I have no idea how much my first month will cost.

DropBox and SugarSync attracted me because of the fact that they're fire and forget.  I install the software, and if I copy something there- fine.  If not, that works too.  It took a lot of time before I actually started using DropBox... then as I did, I found myself using it more and more. SugarSync seems like it would keep that trending upward with the addtional features- so that if I want to do more I can.

SpiderOak looks like something I might look at also.

9271
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 21, 2010, 10:02 AM »
I just did a bit more research, and from what it appears, the perfect cloud solution just isn't there.  This is the reason that I suppose a good backup solution is needed also.  It seems that the editing of files that are backed up is the problem; if the backup occurs while the file is locked, then you have the potential for a problem.  It also seems to be more problematic on Macs... from their 'package' file formats, to the different forks of files (sort of like ADS on windows), they seem to have more problems than windows or linux users.

Some more links:
http://helencrozier....hronization-service/
http://technologykil...s-bitter-aftertaste/
http://technologykil...arsync-vs-spideroak/

I think I'm going to go for a spin with SugarSync paid service so I can back up all of my computers... I'll let you know how things shake out.  So far, using DropBox under those same conditions, I haven't had a problem.

9272
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox
« on: April 21, 2010, 08:36 AM »
i've been using DropBox for a while (with some of the poweruser tips you'll find online) and considered using SugarSync to fill in some of the gaps. i decided not to after reading quite a few people complaining about SugarSync corrupting data. i suppose this must be rare but it was enough to make me decide against even giving it a test run.

Where did you find these complaints?  I'm almost ready to sign up for SugarSync, and I'd like to see these... it might change my decision.

9273
Man... I wish that I could attend.  I love playing boardgames of all stripes, but since I've moved, I haven't been able to play any.

9274
Hmmm... I was looking at upgrading to Fences Pro.  I need to do a bit more investigation, because impulse running all the time is a no-go for me on the purchase.  Steam, I can live with, especially since it's just for games, and the app itself is pretty non-intrusive (and you can run games directly without steam running first).  But impulse just sucks for an always on application.  It's too bloated.  And for the most part I like Stardock and its applications.

9275

(It's the first time I've ever asked for a refund. I refuse to buy Steam games, too, but this is worse - especially that it seems Fences will not even run without Impulse running, too. Is that right, could anyone confirm?)


I use Fences (not Pro) and ObjectDock Pro without Impulse running.  I also installed both without having to install Impulse, but that was a while ago (October 2009) so I'm not sure if this has changed.

Pages: prev1 ... 366 367 368 369 370 [371] 372 373 374 375 376 ... 403next