Messages

926

General Software Discussion / Re: Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

« on: March 31, 2009, 05:59 PM »

Yes, this has been mentioned, and yes it is there in Linkman. At least I see it in the Pro version. Tools>Settings>Browser: List all your browsers here; first is "User-Defined".  Then, Tools>Settings>Launch URLs: Top left box entitled, "Launch URLs with:"

-J-Mac (March 31, 2009, 05:39 PM)

Hi, Jim.  I think I probably didn't make myself sufficiently clear.  I know that Linkman will work with a variety of browsers, and I know that I can go into Settings and tell it which browser to use.  But what I'd like is for it to simply use whichever supported browser I happen to have open.  Thus, if I've set it so that it should open bookmarks with Firefox but I happen to have Opera open instead, I'd like to be able to have it work with Opera without my having to go back into Settings and change things.   

927

General Software Discussion / Re: Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

« on: March 31, 2009, 02:11 PM »

Since this thread started with reference to replacing Powermarks, I'd like to ask a question about Linkman related to that.  I have this vague memory of a setting in Powermarks that enabled it to use whatever supported browser was open.  I'd love to have a similar feature in Linkman.  I know that Linkman permits me to specify that a given bookmark should open with a specific computer (for example, if I say that Linkman should open bookmarks in Firefox, I can nonetheless specify in the properties that a certain bookmark should always open in, say, Internet Explorer).  That's quite useful, but what I'd really like is a setting that says Linkman should open bookmarks in whatever browser is open.  (If more than one browser is open, Linkman could handle it in one of two ways: either 1) ask the user to select the browser to use, or 2) use the browser specified in the Settings in "user defined.")  Am I right in thinking that such a feature doesn't currently exist?  Could it be implemented?

928

General Software Discussion / Re: Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

« on: March 31, 2009, 01:30 PM »

Yeah, I am doing that now, at least definitely keywords.  Is there another setting in Pro for the metatags ?

-Steven Avery (March 31, 2009, 05:25 AM)

Hi, Steven.  The Pro version (and perhaps the Lite as well, I don't know) has checkboxes in the "Receive URLs" section of the Settings for "retrieve keywords" and "retrieve description."   I assume both rely on metatags for their info.  I've left both unchecked, preferring to add the information I deem important and helpful for my searches rather than depend on the often profuse and self-serving metatags supplied by the websites.

As for your other questions, I'm hoping that the Outertech representative wil respond. 

BTW, your remarks about Process Tamer may lead me to give that program a try, not so much for Linkman (which has always responded as fast as I could wish) but to tame or encourage other programs on my computer. 

Like Superboyac (and many others, I'm sure), I love your postings!

929

General Software Discussion / Re: Make Firefox 3 load faster

« on: March 30, 2009, 09:19 PM »

Thanks, dantheman, for your response.  I'll definitely look for .urlfilter.  Even if I don't make Opera the default browser, I still use it enough to make me want to do what I can to get rid of the ads.

From what you say, I guess your statement about Firefox taking <10 seconds to load referred to subsequent loading, not the first time.  I can understand Firefox being a little slower than Opera on first load, but Opera loads about ten times as fast.  Sigh.

As for bookmarks, they're not an issue for me.  I have NO Firefox bookmarks.  I keep all my bookmarks in Linkman, a terrific bookmark manager that works with Firefox, Opera, IE, and a bunch of other browsers. 

930

General Software Discussion / Re: Make Firefox 3 load faster

« on: March 30, 2009, 07:42 PM »

I'm really interested in the claims made by stoobee, AndyM, dantheman, and others about Firefox 3 loading in under 10 seconds.  Are you talking about the first time you start FF after you've booted up your computer?  It takes more than a minute on my computer (which admittedly is almost three years old.  The computer is running WinXP Pro, has a 3.20 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM, and plenty of free space on the hard drive.)  Currently, I've got FF 3.0.8 with about 20 add-ons.  After the first time, FF tends to start up pretty quickly, but the first time is absurdly long, especially in comparison to Opera 9.64, which starts up in about 5 seconds even the first time I run it.  At times, Firefox is also pretty sluggish if I close it down and don't use it for an hour or so.  I've gotten so frustrated with it that I've thought about going back to Opera as my default browser, and just using Firefox when I can't use Opera (e.g., when using WebResearch).  I probably won't do that, since I'm loathe to give up AdBlock, FlashBlock, CookieCuller, and RoboForm (LastPass isn't nearly as good), but I'd love to find a way to make Firefox as responsive as Opera.

931

Living Room / Re: Conficker - The Facts

« on: March 30, 2009, 06:56 PM »

I see removal instructions etc., but how would you even know if you've got the Conficker virus anyway?

-Deozaan (March 30, 2009, 06:37 PM)

I've now read several blogs and an article in USA Today that say you should try to log on to the Microsoft, Symantec, and McAfee websites.  If you can do that, you probably don't have Conficker.  The article goes on to explain:  "That’s because Conficker blocks you from reaching any web address that includes Microsoft, Symantec, McAfee, AVG, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, F-Secure, Panda, Sophos, SecureWorks or Sunbelt in the URL. It also blocks URLs that contain 103 other names and phrases that relate to security. You can see the full list by clicking to SRI International's report here and scrolling down to the table listed under 'domain lookup prevention.'"

I'm hoping that info is right 

932

General Software Discussion / Re: Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

« on: March 30, 2009, 06:45 PM »

Hmm. That should be interesting to try.  Does it give you a yes/no option ? Does it look like it uses content matching under the domain ?  From above it looks like a Pro-only feature, since validation is part of the differences. If so, it is a nice plus for pro.

-Steven Avery (March 30, 2009, 10:36 AM)

I don't think there's a yes/no option, but I could be wrong.  I appreciate the updating when it occurs, so I never looked for a way to turn it off. 

What irked me so much before was that Linkman could give the user the impression of adding and updating (and it would keep the new adds and updates visible for the session in memory) and that the additions would vanish on closing.  This I believe is improper.  If something is not going to be saved it should not give the appearance of being accepted.

-Steven Avery

I agree that this does not seem like a reasonable way for the software to behave.  I wonder whether it was just a glitch rather than Outertech's intended policy.  They've seemed so sensible about most things.... 

Checking to see what is in the Pro that I need or will use some.  I can definitely see a single-license for a separate USB installation.  The other pro-feature aspects above are bit deep for me right now (each one is a paragraph discussion with its own research. I think the Pro version metatag feature may, by default, bring in too many metatags, who wants dozens ?).  While the "Replace feature" is not on the list of differences at the Linkman site om 12/2008 (and the replace and edit features seem to work fine in Lite).

-Steven Avery

For me, the URL validation is so good and so useful that I'd buy the Pro version just to be able to get that.  The other features are currently of less interest to me.  And I agree with you about metatag retrieval.  In fact, when I started using Linkman last spring, I quickly turned off metatag retrieval for both keywords and description.  I felt it provided a lot of irrelevant tags that would screw up my searches.  I much prefer to assign whatever information I think is useful.  Perhaps some day I'll want to use Linkman in a USB installation, but not at present.  I did eventually buy a second license so I could put Linkman Pro on my laptop as well as my desktop

Meanwhile I took Jing pics as well to send to Trialpay and RingCentral, asking why they do not give proper response and honor the offer.  Lots of runaround. Outertech says their experience with Trialpay has been good unraveling offer difficulties.

-Steven Avery

Good luck getting all that sorted out.  Though now that Outertech has offered a substantial discount, perhaps the best thing would be for Trialpay and RingCentral to continue to ignore you 

933

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 07:42 PM »

Boot Log XP. Not free but you could download a fully functional 30-day trial version.

-PhilB66 (March 29, 2009, 06:17 PM)

Thanks very much.  This is just the sort of information I was looking for.  I'll probably give it a try. 

934

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 07:41 PM »

When you say you have over 100GB free drive space, what % is that of the total size of the drive?

One simple thing that may help is running defrag with the -b switch to defrag boot files.

Or you can use TuneXP.  It's a nice little tweaker.  Afa defrag goes, I've gotten in the habit of keeping my drive usage below %30 and running frequent quick defrags using Auslogics defrag mostly.  Once every few months I do the defrag -b as I mentioned.

-MilesAhead (March 29, 2009, 04:45 PM)

Thanks very much for your response.  The 100+ GB of free space represents about 65% or so of the total hard drive space. 

As for defragging, I haven't used the defrag -b, but I did defrag not all that long ago, and today when I checked, I was told that the computer did not need to be defragged again at this time.  Still, I might try defrag -b, and/or I might try TuneXP.  I very much appreciate these suggestions.

935

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 07:13 PM »

I have not used it but BootVis might be helpful.

-rgdot (March 29, 2009, 02:53 PM)

Well, I downloaded a copy and installed it, and then I went on the web to find out how to use it.  I found people who said it was somewhat helpful, but also a disconcerting number of people who had their computers messed up after running BootVis.  Coward that I am, I think I'll err on the side of caution and not use it. 

936

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 04:32 PM »

The more technical (but free) option is to run AutoRuns.exe from the SysInternals Suite (available through Microsoft's Technet).

It will show you what (amount of) applications is started during boot. A simple enabling/disabling of a checkbox will result in the software being enabled/disabled during the next startup from your PC. For me the whole suite is a treasure like  a chest filled with 24 karat gold coins, but this tool and Process Explorer would be the diamonds.

-Shades (March 29, 2009, 03:59 PM)

Thanks very much.  I think I'll have to take another look at AutoRuns.  I remember using it once and being surprised at how many processes it revealed as starting at startup, but at the time I don't think I looked carefully enough at what else I could learn from it.  Sounds as if it's definitely worth another look.  And some of the others in the suite as well.

Again, many thanks!

937

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 04:26 PM »

cyberdiva,

Would any of these other DC threads help?

-rjbull (March 29, 2009, 02:56 PM)

Thanks.  I appreciate your response, but I'm already familiar with most of those threads (though not all).  For the most part, they offer information about delaying some programs from starting at startup.  I've already tried that for one or two via WinPatrol Plus's Delayed Startup feature.  It's helpful, but it doesn't really cut down on my bootup time.  I guess I should have made it clearer that I'd already tried this strategy.

938

General Software Discussion / Re: Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 04:22 PM »

I have not used it but BootVis might be helpful.
I know of and have usedStartup Delayer but that may only help in finding culprits, not necessarily give you a benchmark or time for each application

-rgdot (March 29, 2009, 02:53 PM)

Thanks very much for your response!  I'm especially interested in trying BootVis.  It sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for--something that will analyze my boot process and identify the programs that are taking the most time.

Startup Delayer looks less interesting.  If I read the description correctly, it does much the same thing that WinPatrol Plus does--it can set delayed startups.  I haven't found that to be all that useful (I've tried it with WinPatrol Plus).  But BootVis looks very promising.

939

General Software Discussion / Software to monitor computer start-up?

« on: March 29, 2009, 02:31 PM »

I've become increasingly frustrated over the amount of time my computer takes to boot up.  Today, it took approximately 3 1/2 minutes.  It's a 3-year-old Dell Optiplex GX 620 desktop running Windows XP Pro with a 3.20 GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1 GB RAM, well over 100 GB of free hard drive space, etc.

I do have some carefully considered programs that load at startup, but not an excessive number.  I know what they are, and both WinPatrol Plus and The Ultimate Troubleshooter help me keep the number in check.  But does anyone know of a program that can monitor what happens at startup--i.e., software that will tell me how long each program takes to load?  I'd like to have a better idea of why things have slowed down.  (I should add that I do very frequent scans for viruses and other malware; my computer does not currently need defragging; my registry is in good shape.) 

Thanks in advance for your help.

940

General Software Discussion / Re: Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

« on: March 29, 2009, 02:06 PM »

Thanks for the input, and you're certainly forgiven for not being J-Mac
By link checking, you mean checking for dead links, or do you mean check for content changes?

-TucknDar (March 29, 2009, 01:38 PM)

Thanks for your forgiveness  . 
I was referring to Linkman Pro's ability to check for dead or moved links.  It does so VERY fast, and it can sometimes also update the link's URL. 

941

General Software Discussion / Re: Someone MUST make a new PowerMarks program.

« on: March 29, 2009, 01:32 PM »

J-Mac, would you say the PRO-features are worth the $s?

-TucknDar (March 29, 2009, 01:14 PM)

I'm not J-Mac, but I thought I'd chime in here, since I use the Pro version and think it's definitely worth the money, at least for me.  The Pro feature that matters most to me is the link checking, which is many times faster and more accurate than Powermarks' link checking ability.  For me, that one feature makes the Pro version worth the $. 

942

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: March 25, 2009, 12:06 PM »

Not a problem. In Opera pretty much everything is named a little differently. Always has been. But if you take a good look at each of the toolbars you can see what is there and what you can do with them. The Personal Bar looks identical to Firefox's Bookmark Toolbar, and Opera has had it for much longer actually.

-J-Mac (March 24, 2009, 10:46 PM)

Yes, but since I don't use the Bookmarks toolbar in Firefox, I wouldn't know what to look for.  That's why the names are so important.  I'm not faulting Opera for calling it a Personal Bar; I'm faulting LastPass for providing a video and two sets of less-than-useful instructions that failed to use the term "Personal Bar" (only the third set did so).

943

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: March 24, 2009, 09:44 PM »

Don't "Duh" before you look. The Personal Bar in Opera is what Firefox calls the Bookmarks Toolbar. Works the same and it holds bookmarklets just fine - has for a few years now.

-J-Mac (March 24, 2009, 05:57 PM)

Hi, Jim.  Thanks for the information.  Just for the record, I did look.  I checked the name of every Opera toolbar, and I couldn't find any that matched the instructions in #2.  Had the instructions in #2 specified the Personal Bar (as the instructions in #3 finally did), I'd have had no problem. 

944

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: March 24, 2009, 02:03 PM »

When that happens it offers to Force form fill in or something similar. That seems to always work for me so far.

-justice (March 24, 2009, 01:00 PM)

Oh, OK.  That's good to know.  Thanks.

945

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: March 24, 2009, 12:33 PM »

Nice questions. I look forward to the answers. 

-Dormouse (March 23, 2009, 07:55 PM)

Here's a little more feedback: justice was correct, when I add info to RoboForm, I'm asked whether I want to add it as well to LastPass.  And even if I don't use RoboForm, if I supply any login info in Firefox, LastPass asks whether I want to save it in LastPass as well. 

Unfortunately, LastPass doesn't always seem to recognize when a page will accept a login.  I joined a forum via Firefox, and I arranged to have the data saved in LastPass.  Later, I went to the forum via Opera, went to the login page, and clicked on the LastPass bookmarklet.  To my surprise, I was told "We didn't find any matching fields for the site on this page."  Duh.  So I think the jury is still out on whether LastPass will turn out to be useful enough and unbuggy enough for me to keep using it.

946

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: March 23, 2009, 07:45 PM »

After reading the discussion here about LastPass, I decided to install it so I could use it on Opera, since RoboForm won't work on Opera.  I set up an account and have LastPass installed as a plug-in on Firefox, but I found the process of getting the bookmarklet installed on Opera to be needlessly confusing.  LastPass provided me with not one but three sets of instructions, all different! 

#1 - When I logged into LastPass with Opera and clicked on Bookmarklets, the instruction page first said: "To install, you must drag the above links [i.e., the bookmarklets] to your bookmarks bar."  Duh...there is no bookmarks bar in Opera!    I tried dragging the bookmarklet link to every possible toolbar, but none of them accepted it. 

#2 - At some point, a box opened up on the page; it said:  "You're on LastPass.com.  If you haven't already installed the bookmarklet, you need to drag the bookmarklet (link you clicked on) into your 'Links' or 'Favorites' bar, then go to the site you want to Login or FormFill and click the bookmarklet."  Duh#2 -- I could find no Links or Favorites bar in Opera. 

#3 - At last, I noticed that further down in the instructions, there was yet a third set, this one supposedly designed just for Opera.  It said: "You must right-click the link and bookmark, then set to Show on Personal Bar which is in Details.  You may also have to check View --> Toolbars --> Personal Bar, if it isn't already checked."   This turned out to be the right set of instructions.  The statements could be more clearly written, but at least they're correct.

I'm writing now mostly to inform anyone else who is trying to get the LastPass bookmarklet(s) installed in Opera that you should ignore the first two sets of instructions and just follow the one meant only for Opera.  The videos, too, are less than helpful when it comes to using the bookmarklets with Opera.

I'm also wondering whether I should uninstall the plug-in for Firefox.  Will LastPass and RoboForm conflict with each other?  I don't need LastPass on Firefox, since I'm quite happy with RoboForm.  In an earlier message, justice seemed to suggest that LastPass would add all the information supplied by RoboForm when I logged into sites, which is why I let the plug-in be installed.  But what happens after that?  And will the information LastPass picks up on Firefox transfer automatically to Opera?  My head is spinning. 

947

Unfinished Requests / Re: EXISTS - IDEA: Regular Expression Helper

« on: March 22, 2009, 06:10 PM »

Funduc, makers of the excellent program Search & Replace, offers a freeware program called Search and Replace Regular Expression Wizard.  It doesn't write the regexes for you, but it does provide a good deal of help.  Here's the description (there are screenshots on the web page):
The Search and Replace Regular Expression Wizard is an application we made to help you create, understand, and debug Regular Expressions  used by our Search and Replace windows grep utility. The wizard allows you to construct new expressions, or modify existing ones, using a term-by-term approach. You can visualize the effect of each term in a sample text you can paste into the program from the windows clipboard or retrieve from a file on disk. The effect of specific terms is presented in-context, using colors to distinguish the current term from other parts of the overall expression. 'Search' and 'Replace' Expressions are constructed/ examined in separate screens of the Wizard so you can work on each part semi-independent of the other. You can move back & forth between the Wizard screens to make adjustments or experiment. The sample text can also be changed at any point by returning to the starting screen. When you are satisfied, the final expressions can be inserted automatically in the respective fields in the Search and Replace main program dialog (if Search and Replace is running).

I don't think you need to have Search and Replace to use the Wizard.  Anyway, since it's freeware, there's no harm in giving it a try.

948

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: March 22, 2009, 05:59 PM »

Am I the only person in the world that has a real problem   with storing a password list online, no matter who with? I don't even allow my e-mail client or browser to remember them.

-40hz (March 22, 2009, 04:13 PM)

I too have real reservations about doing so--that's why I asked the question about LastPass.  I've never taken advantage of any opportunities to store my info on the web, be it something as trivial as bookmarks or as potentially serious as passwords.  I've felt that the convenience is probably outweighed by the risks.  However, allen's response about LastPass makes me wonder whether that might be an exception.

949

General Software Discussion / Re: Best password manager?

« on: March 22, 2009, 10:30 AM »

I've been reading some good things about LastPass lately, might be worth a look. Its form filler works well, but I really didn't care for the web interface at all.

-allen (March 22, 2009, 09:35 AM)

I just took a look at the LastPass website, since I'd love to find a password manager that will work with Opera in a way similar to RoboForm.  However, from what I can tell, all my passwords would be stored remotely on the LastPass site.  Thus, I have to trust LastPass not to misuse that information, not to be unavailable, and not to be hacked.  That's probably more trust than I'm comfortable with.  Did I misunderstand something?

950

Site/Forum Features / Re: Meta Survey Survey for Fundraiser Survey

« on: March 20, 2009, 10:42 PM »

And if not, what aspect of the site DID you like?

-cranioscopical (March 20, 2009, 06:53 PM)

I think that's a good question to ask everyone, not just those who didn't donate.