Messages

26

General Software Discussion / Re: PIM's

« on: May 15, 2007, 06:39 AM »

I haven't used it myself but a similar question over on the Powertools Yahoo group drew a river of positives for Azz Cardfile.

Jeff

27

General Software Discussion / Re: You Should Pay Me to Read This Post (It's worth it...)

« on: May 08, 2007, 11:52 PM »

I came across trialpay recently and am now starting to get promotional emails from them.  I was up last night in the middle of the night (wife sick - I couldn't sleep) and decided to check my email.  There was an offer for ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite if one purchased one of their services.  I was going to buy flowers but noticed one of the options was to open an eBay account and make a bid on something.  Well I already have an eBay account but I thought what the heck, I've been considering that software for some time and here is an opportunity.  So I opened a new eBay account, made a bid on something I had my eye on (my bid wasn't successful) and went back to bed.  This morning I had am email with the registration for the software.  With clearer mind I realised that I was supposed to be a new eBay customer not an existing one.

28

General Software Discussion / Re: To Vista or not to Vista that is the ?

« on: May 06, 2007, 07:20 AM »

I now have Vista on my laptop and I don't think I have that problem.  I shall test it more thoroughly tomorrow, Aussie time.

Jeff

29

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: May 03, 2007, 05:13 PM »

Since I bought EverNote recently I found myself using it quite a bit.  At work I use UltraRecall, mainly for it's ability to link to and index MS Office documents.

I used to use InfoSelect and still like the application, but upgrades are to expensive, and the interface looks old, albeit working well.

30

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« on: April 28, 2007, 03:57 AM »

I can confirm that one can't put both the upgrade discount code and the DC discount code in the box at the same time or one after another.

Jeff

31

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« on: April 27, 2007, 11:00 PM »

Yes.  I was fortunate to buy DO8 for $AU47.30.  The upgrade will cost me $AU55 atm.  Given that I don't use it intensly I will probably wait for an opportunity to buy the upgrade cheaper.

32

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 9

« on: April 27, 2007, 10:28 PM »

AFAICT the current DC code will only give a 25% discount ie approx $AU21.  If you already have a DO licence you can go to the DO website and claim the upgrade discount which is $AU30 for a single user.

BTW the $AU is starting to come back against the $US in the last day or so.

Jeff

33

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« on: April 25, 2007, 09:37 AM »

Thanks for the thanks.  It's good to know that it has been helpful to someone.  My mood is further lifted watching Australia get 5 South African wickets in rapid succession in the Cricket World Cup semi-final.

I also generally pay in $US - it seems that the exchange rates always favours that rather than paying in my local $AU.

The Australian dollar has lifted in the last several weeks from approx 75USc to 83c.  So buying software in $US has been cheaper over that period.

Jeff

34

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: April 23, 2007, 03:32 PM »

Just to clarify.  I wasn't "an existing customer".  I may have tried it out once but didn't continue.  I had just signed up for the mailing list.

Jeff

35

General Software Discussion / Re: To cut or not to cut - The lousy MS Office ribbon

« on: April 23, 2007, 02:05 AM »

I can't type, and that's probably why the ribbon doesn't appear to slow me down.  I like the improved right click menu in Excel 2007.

However I also have NovaMind mindmapping program which has an Office 2007 lookalike ribbon.  And it does slow me down.  It makes the ability to quickly add branches and subbranches to a mindmap quite slow and counter intuitive compared with similr applications IMHO.

Jeff

36

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: April 22, 2007, 12:53 AM »

Well I've done a bit more experimentation and also read most of the helpfile.  This is really good.

As an example of the neat things I think I can now due I have an old Motorola A1000 mobile phone.  I can make and store handwritten notes on this while on the move.  However in the past it wasn't much good - I could transfer the note to my PC as an image but then had no real way of searching the data. Now I can bluetooth the image to my laptop and search it via EverNote.  Brilliant.

For $30 this is a no brainer for me. 

37

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: April 21, 2007, 07:31 AM »

Further to the above a liitle bit more research indicates that the new version is quite different to v1.5 so it would be worth another look for some of you.  AFAICT the upgrade is $US19.95.  MS OneNote has the recognise text in images capability apparently.  I hope to kook at OneNote soon but in the meantime EverNote is very interesting.

Jeff

38

General Software Discussion / Re: General brainstorming for Note-taking software

« on: April 21, 2007, 03:16 AM »

I must have signed up for the EverNote email list some time ago.  I had it installed once but didn't take a lot of notice.  I received an email today promoting the new version 2.0 Plus.  I have been trying it with my tablet laptop and it appears to be very good.  I am very impressed by its ability to search for text in graphics, and to interpret my handwriting.  The email offered it for $US30 (normally $50?).  I'm not sure haw that discount can be made available to DC members.

Here is an excerpt from the email:-

"We are excited to announce the availability of EverNote 2.0!

For the first time on the market, the EverNote Team brings to your PC search for printed and handwritten text in images! Seamlessly find your scanned receipts, forms and records; camera phone snapshots of price tags, whiteboard brainstorms, and much more! Experience our unique AIR-search technology!

EverNote Plus 2.0 also includes handwriting recognition, shape and chart recognition and keyword search in handwritten notes captured on Tablet PC or other pen-enabled devices.

We worked hard to implement multiple new features and improvements requested by EverNote users. The new version includes:


Improved UI - Note List with automatically generated titles, multi-color Flags, Embedded To-Dos
Advanced capturing of content and portions of your screen via new Universal Clipper
Greatly improved category management:
Keyword search in categories
New time categories
New category stamp dialogs
Enhanced backup system and more... "

39

Living Room / Re: Latest Apple Mac vs PC Commercial: PCs suck because of all the software cho

« on: April 19, 2007, 05:03 PM »

I am a member of the regional committee of the church I attend made up of half clergy and half lay people.  In amongst them (there is about 70 altogether of which about a dozen could be described as gadget freaks) there are several Mac evangelists.  Setting up the computers for a talk, a presentation of clever ads or cartoons or some music becomes a competition between the Windows laptops and the Macs.  Quite often the mealtime conversation centres around the "which is best" perennial question.  Last meeting their was even a debate about whether a meember going to minister in remote North Western Australia should keep her Mac or get a Windows based machine.  (Only computer discussion I have ever heard where the ability of a machine to withstand dust ingress was debated).

Getting back to mouser's OT, I love mucking around with software and computer setup so a get it amd forget it machine is no good to me.  In fact I am embarrassed to say that of all the time I spend on computers probably only 2/3 is spent actually producing something and the rest on fiddling with software.

Jeff

40

General Software Discussion / Re: RANT: High Software Prices!

« on: April 18, 2007, 05:11 AM »

Great and interesting posts gang.  Keep 'em coming!

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General Software Discussion / Re: RANT: High Software Prices!

« on: April 18, 2007, 04:34 AM »

Ah yes, I would love to see a baseball game (and gridiron).  I'd have to go to Washington to see some history wouldn't I?

I didn't realise that there were so few intra continental passenger trains.  Gas over here is about $US0.8 to $US1 for unleaded fuel, slightly higher for distillate.

Back OT.  How do forum members cope when software is dearer than they want to pay but has some features they really like, and a whole heap of functionality and power which is superfluous?  Might be a subject for a new thread but what eg are the substitutes for eg Photoshop.

42

General Software Discussion / Re: RANT: High Software Prices!

« on: April 18, 2007, 01:30 AM »

My dream is to visit that rotten country of yours.  I would like to go from one coast to the other by road or short rail trips, with emaphasis on the historical sites in the East and Indian country and the spacious rural places.  And maybe one or two big cities like NY and LA.  My wife and I have had our progress slowed as she is battling cancer but before that her dream was Western Canada and Alaska and mine was UK.  But the more I read the more I think I would love to visit the US.

So you have to keep the oil prices down until I get there (and the US/AU currency exchange rate too).

I might buy some cheap software while I am there.

43

General Software Discussion / Re: RANT: High Software Prices!

« on: April 18, 2007, 01:11 AM »

A very intersting discussion.

When I first started using personal computers > 20 years ago, it was accepted practice among my peers to use pirated software, we shared several shoeboxes full.

Say 8-10 years ago I probably had half a dozen cracked pieces of software on my machine.

Now I can't bring to mind any.

I ask myself what changed.  One thing is I can afford it.  In the last year I have paid for several pieces of software, some of which I now admit I didn't really need.

The next thing is - I feel guilty about not paying.  I recently saw that I had a copy of Real Draw Pro on my computer.  Knowing that I had not put it there I asked my daughter, who has recently left home, whether she had.  She said she got it from a friend "a fair while ago".  It must have been cracked.  Rather than simply delete it, my guilty conscience took over and I bought a licence.

Having said that I can't remember buying anything over $US100 and for that I have some really neat software including Novamind and ConceptDraw mindmapping, Ultrarecall, Directory Opus and Xara Xtreme.  (Sorry I forgot MS Office Professional 2007 which I got as a $27 upgrade after buying MS Office Professional 2003 for $AU228 which is the lowest legitimate price I have ever seen it.)

As for Photoshop I guess I don't need it.  And I admit that I wouldn't pay the asking price for it.  I also as a matter of principle don't buy magazines with trial versions of it and tutorials for it because I know I won't be buying the full product.

So I think software is an expensive personal interest and am very appreciative of all the sources of cheap/free software.

Jeff

44

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« on: April 11, 2007, 06:48 PM »

I'm installing Vista (Business) on my relatively new laptop today.  Wish me luck.

Jeff

-JeffK (April 10, 2007, 06:32 PM)

I'm having a lot of trouble.  The first reboot during installation brought on a "Disk Read Error Press CAD to reboot".

I couldn't get around it so now I am having to do a fresh install rather than an upgrade.  Not happy Bill.

-JeffK (April 11, 2007, 08:56 AM)

Fresh install worked fine.  Fortunately it is a new laptop so I don't have to reinstall many apps.

45

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« on: April 11, 2007, 08:56 AM »

I'm installing Vista (Business) on my relatively new laptop today.  Wish me luck.

Jeff

-JeffK (April 10, 2007, 06:32 PM)

I'm having a lot of trouble.  The first reboot during installation brought on a "Disk Read Error Press CAD to reboot".

I couldn't get around it so now I am having to do a fresh install rather than an upgrade.  Not happy Bill.

46

General Software Discussion / Re: Don't be fooled, Vista wants new hardware

« on: April 10, 2007, 06:32 PM »

I'm installing Vista (Business) on my relatively new laptop today.  Wish me luck.

Jeff

47

General Software Discussion / Re: To cut or not to cut - The lousy MS Office ribbon

« on: April 09, 2007, 04:59 AM »

FWIW, I think the ribbon is great, especially in Excel.  I use Excel, and to a lesser extent, Word, quit e a bit at work and I can't wait until my employer changes over from MS Office 2003 to 2007. 

I notice that Publisher 2007 does not have the ribbon.

Jeff

48

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« on: April 04, 2007, 05:11 PM »

I agree with all of the above, even if it doesn't all agree with each other.  And Sri Lanka beat England in the cricket ... woohoo - I'd like to see a picture of that!

49

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« on: April 04, 2007, 06:57 AM »

If you simply click on a folder in explorer view (left hand pane) it will simply create temporary thumbnails (and fast).  Subfolders can be excluded or included at the user's choice.  Creating a catalog enables one to keep images (thumbnails or bigger) in a file on your hard drive.  I haven't tried yet but presumably one can create a catalog with images from different folders.

Jeff

50

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to find a decent image organizer?

« on: April 04, 2007, 03:44 AM »

FWIW ExifPro cataloged my 224MB of 1024*768 photos in a 68MB file containing "normal" size thumbnails (560x560) in about 2 minutes.  Two files had errors and as Darwin found each error had to be acknowledged manually before cataloging continued.