Messages

351

Living Room / Re: hard drive resurrection [I'm desperate!]

« on: April 28, 2006, 12:35 AM »

Not sure if this article would be of any help :

"Get IT Done: 200 ways to revive a hard drive"
http://techrepublic....-6255-5029761-1.html

352

Found Deals and Discounts / Discounts at Windows User Group www.wugnet.com

« on: April 26, 2006, 12:25 PM »

You can get some deals at:

http://www.wugnet.co...chives/wugnet-db.asp

But do note that you can safely ignore the deadlines in each of the offers where they set a date for you to get the offer.

It's basically a date that is set a few days away to create the impression of scarcity. ie that the deal expires unless you respond by such and such a date.

I have gone back there from time to time and so far, the discounts have not expired on me.

So hang on to your credit cards if you are unsure. Don't be hurried by the deadlines.

353

Found Deals and Discounts / GhostSurf Platinum 2006 1 week 40% off offer

« on: April 26, 2006, 12:19 PM »

For those who must surf anonymously or paranoid about it.

The email flyer says "This offer expires in one week"

There were times when I went back past the offer date and the offer was still there.

Maybe they use a different clock than I use or they were just forgetful. But don't count on that if you have always wanted to have the software.

http://www.v-com.com...2006_060425_117.html

354

Found Deals and Discounts / "Secret" Sale at Handango just for 1 week - PocketPC & Palm related software

« on: April 25, 2006, 11:28 PM »

Secret Sale at Handango just for 1 week for PocketPC or Palm software

Don't click on the image. It has no link. Click below instead

www.handango.com

or

http://www.handango....portId=MTQ1MjUwOTcS1
or

http://tinyurl.com/rf63v

355

General Software Discussion / Re: SequoiaView, WinDirStat, etc. - great for HDD cleanups!

« on: April 20, 2006, 11:53 PM »

Here's a freebie

MemeCode - i.Disk
"Ever wanted to know where all the used space on your hard disk was hiding?

i.Disk scans directory trees and displays the total space used by each directory in an easy to use form. You can drill down into the directorys to understand the layout of space. And when you want to clean up your disk there are same handy tools there to help. The directory called '.' is the space used by files in the base directory you are scanning from."
http://www.memecode.com/idisk.php




But why bother if you have a good Dual Pane File Manager like Directory Opus

Utilities such as these are great, but ever since I started using Directory Opus, I have found no need for such utilities since Directory Opus also shows you the space taken up by each directory and more importantly, you are right within a dual pane file manager on steriods and there's no need to switch out to another program to do your file management.

356

Official Announcements / Re: New site feature - Ignore Boards

« on: April 20, 2006, 11:15 AM »

In your profile you should now see an "Ignore Boards" setting in left sidebar.

-mouser (April 19, 2006, 12:53 PM)

Took a look in the profile but could find no "Ignore Boards" setting in the left sidebar.

357

General Software Discussion / How do you protect yourself against faulty Windows patches

« on: April 18, 2006, 09:16 AM »

Windows patch trips up on HP tool, firewall | Tech News on ZDNet

A "critical" Windows patch can cause trouble on computers that run certain Hewlett-Packard photo-sharing software or the Kerio firewall, Microsoft said.

http://news.zdnet.co...026.html?tag=nl.e589

For me, one way is to delay the patches by a couple of days so that the problem can surface.

However, the patches were released last week and I only knew about the problems today.

So this is where a software line Goback really helps which allows me to turn back the clock literally.
http://www.goback.com/

It's the only Symantec product I have and have saved me before but not this round since I do not have the affected software mentioned in the article.

But who knows when the next problematical "critical" patch will come around and mess things up for me or you.

But in that sense, I'm prepared.

It would be good to find out how others "protect" themselves from potential patching disaster other than imaging your system before patching.

358

General Software Discussion / Re: Searching a good Screenrecorder - Wink 2.0 Released

« on: April 14, 2006, 02:26 AM »

Wink 2.0 has been released. 

http://www.debugmode...om/wink/download.php

359

General Software Discussion / Re: better than using an unistaller? Altiris SVS

« on: April 13, 2006, 01:01 PM »

A read of PCMag Review and the caveats is instructive.

Altiris Software Virtualization Solution 2.0 review by PC Magazine

http://www.pcmag.com...,1895,1941830,00.asp

360

General Software Discussion / Re: better than using an unistaller? Altiris SVS

« on: April 13, 2006, 12:46 PM »

I took a look at the altiris related sites and they looked quite well supported.

Moreover, for personal use, Altiris is free.

Not sure what's the difference between this and Sandboxie.

http://juice.altiris.com/node/266

http://juice.altiris.com/node?from=20

http://www.svsdownlo...com/svs_tutorial.php

361

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits du Jour - One Software Title Each Day At A Big Discount

« on: April 13, 2006, 12:08 PM »

thanks patteo, ill update the discount link.

i don't know about the v3 upgrade policy other than when i cited it.. maybe pays to ask..

-mouser (April 10, 2006, 10:18 AM)

Well, this answer was posted at their forum.

Most likely, yes.

We haven't finalized our version 3 upgrade policy yet, but there will be some kind of upgrade protection. If we release version 3 within 18 months of your purchase, 100% of that payment can be applied towards the version 3 license.

--------------------
Tim T Scooter Software

362

General Software Discussion / Re: better than using an unistaller? Altiris SVS

« on: April 12, 2006, 09:24 AM »

I think there's a similar product call Shadowuser.

StorageCraft - Surf the web privately and free of adware and spyware!
http://www.storagecr....com/SUdownload.html

There's also a $20 discount coupon SUDISCOUNT on the site that says it expires on 31/3/2006

Out of curiosity I tried it and it still works and gives a net price of $49.

Not sure how it differs from VMWare and Microsoft Virtual PC

Understand that Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 is now free
http://www.microsoft...lserver/default.mspx

363

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: April 12, 2006, 07:37 AM »

One more thing.

There's a freeware at his site for those who like a machine to speedread for you, so you have more time to relax and have more time to surf www.donationcoder.com 

Quote from http://www.softwareu...ies.com/pkwindex.htm
Keywords Seeker
"KeyWords Seeker helps you to decide if the e-mail you got or web page you entered might be interesting for you.  The main idea is very simple: Within KeyWords Seeker, that silently runs showing just an icon in the system tray,   you create a file of keywords that are interesting for you (keywords can be divided to several groups called vocabularies).  When you enter a web page or open an e-mail and want to know if it is worthy to read just drag the KeyWords Seeker icon from the system tray and drop it on the document you have open on the screen.  The KeyWords Seeker will "read" the document and searches it through for defined keywords. If some keywords are found then they are listed in a window for you.  Depending on keywords found (or no keyword found) you can decide if the document is worthy further reading.  Using KeyWords Seeker you never miss important information but save great volume of time not having to read everything you get."
http://www.softwareu...ies.com/pkwindex.htm

364

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: April 12, 2006, 07:32 AM »

If you are going to buy any of these utilities it is worth considering Macro tool works as it includes the functionality of pretty much all the other utilities (except Perfect Menu).

-Carol Haynes (April 12, 2006, 07:04 AM)

Yes I agree with you Carol, Macro Toolworks is the "Mother of All Macros" for all the utilities at his site.

Frankly, it had a lot of power and unless you are committed to using it all, it may be an overkill to buy the Advanced Scripting edition. He has a support forum.

But of course there are also freeware alternatives though I have not tried them.

365

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: April 12, 2006, 07:24 AM »

Try http://www.clasohm.com/lmt/en/ which does exactly this as you type. It learns your vocabulary as you type documents or you can feed it text documents to train it to your vocab. Don't go mad though if the dictionary gets too big it slows down. It doesn't expand abbreviations though (as far as I remember) just gives choices from the first few letters. IIRC you can include phrases though.

It has been a while since I used it but it worked pretty well.

-Carol Haynes (April 12, 2006, 06:57 AM)

Funny, thanks Carol for the heads-up. When I was downloading it, I realised that I had already downloaded this before in Oct 2005. But I just did not get to try it.

It just shows how important reinforcement is. And that's how this forum can really help one another. I mean it's so easy to do "Drive-by" downloading and never get to try them and forget why you even downloaded them in the 1st place.

Thanks again Carol and of course wr975 who mentioned this in another thread, https://www.donation...78.msg22134#msg22134
And not to forget Mouser who started it all. 

366

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: April 12, 2006, 06:55 AM »

4. Cancelling a shortcut
Right now, if I key a shortcut such as "ap" and realised that I made a mistake and want to cancel it, intuitively I press ESC, but that suspends the HotstringsScript.

Is there a Hotkey to somehow renable the HotstringsScript without having to Right Click the Icon in the system tray ?

-patteo (April 12, 2006, 01:07 AM)

This script works like that, it's supposed to be always suspended. When you type some shortcut, the tooltip labels (which are not suspended) go active and enable the rest of the hotstrings.
I don't think I understand veinry well what you mean.

-jgpaiva (April 12, 2006, 03:59 AM)

OK, I guess I am the one who misunderstood how it's supposed to work. I thought it went into suspended mode when I hit Esc. My mistake.

367

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: April 12, 2006, 03:49 AM »

I'm using Perfect Keyboard from www.softwareutilities.com

It's been around for many years now. At least 10+ years if I remember correctly.

Apart from shortcuts to replace text, it does a lot of other things like allow you to record keystrokes, and for the more adventurous, it has a lot of other functions in it and even a VBA like scripting language depending on which version.

It is very powerful indeed provided one taps the power.

Of course there are many such programs around.

368

Finished Programs / Re: DONE: abbreviations importer

« on: April 12, 2006, 01:07 AM »

I'm a little late to the party.

I have a couple of suggestions (based on my use of a macro program) that others may find useful :

1. Spaces allowed after phrases
Just wondering if it's possible to have spaces following the phrases in the textfile.txt

tqb=the quick brown fox
jo=jumps over
tld=the lazy dog.

ie there's a space after "fox" and "over"

Currently, the space after "fox" and "over" is not recognized.

As most people will use space as a trigger, they basically would be typing
tqb<space><space>jo<space><space>tld<space>

If the space after "fox" and "over" is recognized, then it becomes quite natural as they would be typing
tqb<space>jo<space>tld<space>

2. Repeat shortcuts
Most of us probably remember shortcuts based on a system of nemonics, so invariably, they would end up with many repeats somewhere along the way. Allowing repeat makes the process of creating shortcuts easy because you can then do it intuitively.

Right now, I use a macro program that allows repeats except that when you press the trigger (<space>) there's a popup that gives you the possible choices.

ap=approach
ap=appraise

The popup in this case would be
1. approach
2. appraise

To select appraise, all You have to do is press 2 and appraise would be inserted where the cursor is.

3. Tooltip location, font and color
An option to choose where the tooltip appears would be useful, ie either next to the cursor or next to the mouse pointer.

Right now, the tooltip appears close to where the mouse pointer is.
However, most of us would be looking where the cursor is rather than where the mouse pointer is.

By having the tooltip appear close to the cursor will ensure that you can keep your focus on what you are typing.

It would be nice too if one can set the size of the tooltip font (or even the color to help it stand out) so that a quick glance can do the trick for those of us who are a little over the hill.

4. Cancelling a shortcut
Right now, if I key a shortcut such as "ap" and realised that I made a mistake and want to cancel it, intuitively I press ESC, but that suspends the HotstringsScript.

Is there a Hotkey to somehow renable the HotstringsScript without having to Right Click the Icon in the system tray ?

Perhaps I'm asking too much.

jgpaiva, even without the above, as it is, it's already a work or art.

369

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a good file transfer app

« on: April 11, 2006, 08:58 AM »

Here's a little more information about it from PCMag UK

http://www.pcmag.co..../2043718/foldershare

Please note that the service is now free as of Nov 2005 (Microsoft acquired it)

370

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for a good file transfer app

« on: April 11, 2006, 08:45 AM »

Take a look at https://www.foldershare.com/

It's free and your PC acts like a server if I'm not mistaken. Not sure how fast it is.

It was a paid service up till recently until it was acquired by Microsoft.

371

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits du Jour - One Software Title Each Day At A Big Discount

« on: April 10, 2006, 10:03 PM »

Thanks for the heads-up Darwin.

I think anyone still thinking should grab it.

There's only under two hours left.

372

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Bits du Jour - One Software Title Each Day At A Big Discount

« on: April 10, 2006, 10:04 AM »

In the Beyond Compare review page, https://www.donation...pareTools/index.html
there was this comment.

"The icing on the cake is that Scooter Software has informed us that anyone purchasing Beyond Compare now will get a free upgrade to version 3 when it is released."

Couple of questions.

Is this still true.

Is it specific to Donationcoder only ?

Or does it apply even to purchases at http://bitsdujour.com/


Note to moderators

https://www.donation...Discounts/index.html

Indicated as "Not reviewed by us"

Actually it is reviewed at https://www.donation...pareTools/index.html

373

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: BatchFTP - Why not Webdrive ?

« on: April 06, 2006, 12:03 PM »

I'm not sure if this would be of any help.

I could never fully understand why a lot of people swear by FTP when there's another alternative like webdrive
http://www.webdrive.com/ . Maybe I'm missing something !

Basically what it does is map your FTP site to a drive name, any name eg K:

Then it appears like any drive, ie K: in this case to any of your windows programs like Explorer, xplorer2, Dopus (Directory Opus I mean), Norton Commander, Beyond Compare etc so you can copy, move, delete, synchronize.

In fact you can map multiple FTP sites and see all the various sites like additional drives.

Of course it's not $14.95. It's $54.95.

I trialed it a quite a while back when I was playing around with setting up a simple website and it worked pretty well. I simply had my website as another "Drive"

And if you update your site regularly, you could use any Windows based folder comparison utility to compare the files on K: with that on C: just by the date and only "FTP" (copy in this case) the newer files which would make updating the site a breeze.

I did not buy it because I could accomplish what I wanted with a freeware like Coreftp which also gave me command line commands. And besides, what I was doing was nothing intensive.

374

General Software Discussion / Does anyone use PocketPCs

« on: April 01, 2006, 03:39 AM »

I was just curious.

I hardly see any post in this forum on PocketPCs. Do you all only live in front of the PC ?

Does anyone who visits this forum use PocketPCs and what are their favourite software, freeware they could not live without.

I just went to http://bitsdujour.com/ and discovered that they had one of the favourites on sale :ewallet at 55% off this weekend.

Perhaps I can kick it off with a list of what I use or cannot live without.

Pocket Informant 
A very well endowed PIM - regularly updated
www.pocketinformant.com

If you are patient, I think his anniversay date when the company was formed is around Oct 15. At that point, he has been known to knock down the price.
Beats the heck out of the software that came bundled with the ipaq and synchronizes with your Outlook.

ewallet
Currently on offer at http://bitsdujour.com/ this weekend         
Keep your private info, software serials etc and can synch with your desktop if you buy the desktop version as well.
www.iliumsoft.com

Pocket Bible   
Daily Reader
You can buy devotionals, motivational books (not many) etc
www.laridian.com

Calligrapher   
Wonderful handwriting recognition, macros, shortcuts etc

Phatnotes Professional
Great note taking utility and organizer. Synchs with desktop or Outlook depending on version

Phatpat
Take graphical notes. Synchs with desktop.
Bought them a while back when they had one of those mad 3 day sale when everything was at one unbelievably cheap price.
www.phatware.com

Sprite Backup 
Works - a real lifesaver
www.spritebackup.com

Stoptime
Stopwatch, alarm etc
Freeware, plus a few other freebies at his site
http://home.comcast.net/~jonsachs/

Magic Button
Enables you to switch between programs.
http://www.trancreative.com/mb.aspx

SimpleSMS
For those who struggle with typing long SMS with your handphone. Write your sms on your PocketPC and send SMS via Handphone via IR or Bluetooth. But may not work with all phones.
http://www.visualit....cketPC/simplesms.htm

Avantgo
Newsreader
Freeware
www.avantgo.com

Battery pack pro
Utility that tracks battery condition. Launch buttons etc.
http://www.omegaone.com/home.htm

Wolfclock
Under test- hopefully functional enough to replace ptravelalarm which is shareware
Freeware
Alarm clock
http://www.freewarep...lock/wolfclock.shtml

There are lots of freeware but a bit overwhelming so it would be good to hear the recommendations of people here.

You can also find other freeware at www.handango.com

375

General Software Discussion / Re: Review of File Renamers — let's make a list

« on: April 01, 2006, 01:09 AM »

Another one is Siren but I have not tested it. I only checked to see if there were command line arguments available since I was looking from the automation perspective.

http://www.scarabee-...re.net/en/index.html

It's Freeware

Personally I think Command line commands is a must if you really want to automate anything with utilities like that . Yes, it would be nice to have a nice GUI. But I think, no one should take away the command line functions in the process and it is sad that in the process of making utilities for the masses, many developers forget that there's a group who can really benefit from such commands. So effectively, they end up crippling the software for them.