Messages

6176

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

« on: February 21, 2006, 05:49 PM »

So I tried Surfulater, and (sigh) here we go...yet another good notetaking program.  Surfulator is basically a notetaking program with the ability to capture webpages, which is great.  However, like all other programs in this genre, there are several other programs that do just about the same thing.

Both Mybase and Evernote are also notetaking programs with the ability to capture webpages.  I would say that Surfulator is 90% identical to Mybase, because Evernote has a unique, quirky navigation style.  Between Mybase and Surfulater, I would choose Mybase, because it has many more poweruser-like options.  For example, you can password-protect any branch of notes, and it has several plugins that powerusers will definitely find handy.  Mybase, in my opinion, is a very promising program in this notetaking genre, and I am surprised that people don't talk about it as much.  Unfortunately, the development of Mybase seems to be extremely slow, and there are a lot of features missing.  However, if you ask me, I would put my money on Mybase as far as which software will eventually be the leader in this complex genre.  Although, now that mouser says he is going to redo CHS, I'd also put my money on that.

But back to Surfulater...like I said, it has a lot of overlapping features with Mybase and Evernote.  And if you like Surfulator a lot, then I don't see why you wouldn't like Mybase better.

6177

What's the Best? / Re: AddressBook Utility

« on: February 21, 2006, 05:36 PM »

So, is this the official addresbook thread now?  Cool.

I tried Pimex, and there's a lot of good things there, but there is also so much missing, I don't even have time to go into it right now.  But I'll get to it later.

6178

Living Room / Re: Coffee vs. Tea

« on: February 17, 2006, 12:02 PM »

Ha!  That is freakin hilarious!  (I think you mean cannabis, but we all get the point).
Caffeine with doobies, what a combo.  That's like mixing cocaine with alcohol.  How does your body feel after that?!  Hyper, yet relaxed?  Too funny...I wanna try it.

6179

Living Room / Re: I may get a new (used) laptop!

« on: February 17, 2006, 11:56 AM »

Yeah, the Leslie does rock!
You definitely need a little more than soundblaster to really enjoy the VST software, unless you were able to get decent latency from just that.  But depending on what you're trying to do, some things will be better with the computer (for now at least) and some things will be worse.  In my case, I'm just trying to play regular sounds (piano, organ, rhodes) live with a better sound, without carrying multiple keyboards around.  But it's really for the sounds.  I'm not recording with the laptop nor do I need lots of effects like guitar players.  So, all I really need to run is a VST host with a couple of plugins.

Guitar players, on the other hand, need a whole slew of effects and stuff, and not only that, they need to be able to control in with foot switches and what not.  So it takes a lot more tweaking and setting up, and a whole bunch of other stuff just to get a decent setup.  And there's the possibility that it doesn't even sound as good through the computer as the real thing (like you mentioned).  Besides, all the guitar stuff is already portable, so you don't have as much incentive as keyboard players to use computer software to achieve a certain sound.

That being said, let me also say I got a Peavey 1600x midi controller, which is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  They don't make it anymore for some reason, but this thing is awesome.  It's a programmable midi controller with 16 knobs and 16 buttons, and it's built very well.  I use it to adjust anything in my VST software, so it almost feels like I'm not even using the computer.  I have to say, before I had the 1600x, using VST software just wasn't that practical.

6180

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Windows Start Menu manager

« on: February 16, 2006, 07:24 PM »

Well, I do use FARR...
Actually, you have a good point.  I haven't used Start Menu much since FARR.  But having a bunch of stuff in there still bothers me.  Hmmm....I have to think about this.  Seriously, why do I need this if I have FARR?  I'm beginning to think that this is kind of a worthless idea.

6181

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Windows Start Menu manager

« on: February 16, 2006, 06:56 PM »

I don't think there's a good start menu manager out there (that I've seen at least).  I know that you can do this using a regular file manager and just move the shortcut files around, but it would be nice to have a tool specifically for this.  Some programs are in the All Users folder and some programs are in your specific login directory.  I'm looking for something that can easily move things back and forth and add items easily.  Also, have several options including one that will APLHABETIZE the list, and maybe some other options for sorting.

I've tried a couple of programs that do this, sort of, (I don't remember them right now).  But they weren't very good at all.  Usually, when I do this now, I just use Directory Opus and have two panes open and start moving the shortcuts back and forth.

Other nice features would be:
--Saving certain configurations, in case you want to have things arranged multiple ways
--Right-click option to quickly add shortcuts to exactly where you want in a start menu
--Profile synchronizer, in case you want to make a few user profiles the same, etc.

Anyway, that's it.

6182

General Software Discussion / Re: utorrent and azureus high cpu activity

« on: February 16, 2006, 06:07 PM »

Hirudin, so you're a fellow java hater also?  I'm not a programmer or anything, but why do java applications suck so much?  I don't know why, but they just do.

6183

General Software Discussion / Re: utorrent and azureus high cpu activity

« on: February 16, 2006, 05:38 PM »

No, you're not crazy.  I used azureus for a long time, and found that it hogged my cpu.  Actually, that's why I turned to utorrent, but I think that is pretty heavy on my cpu as well.  I like utorrent because it's not java like azureus and clicking around things is faster and it feels more lightweight.  However, azureus is more feature-rich, although I don't think I use any of the fancy features.

But back on topic, I don't know if it's the nature of torrents or what, but these programs do seem to use a lot of cpu.  Maybe there are other alternatives, like ABC, which I used a little bit, but it seemed to download slower than azureus and utorrent.  On the positive side, azureus downloads the fastest of them all I think, with utorrent almost there also.

Maybe because the download speeds are approachin 200-300 kBps is what is making the computer slow.  Does anyone know anything about that?  I've heard that when you download anything at really high speeds, the computer can become significantly slower.  Is that true?

6184

Living Room / Re: I may get a new (used) laptop!

« on: February 16, 2006, 05:24 PM »

Well, if there were other musicians on board, I'd do a review of VST host software, but I don't think there are many musicians here (I may be wrong).  Maybe I can invite some people from my musician forums to help write a review, and in the process they can be introduced to DC...there's something to think about for the future.

6185

Living Room / Re: I may get a new (used) laptop!

« on: February 16, 2006, 04:04 PM »

That looks like a good buy (depending on the price, of course Wink ).
I am a acer user myself, and have also had a compaq laptop. Both top of the line (at least, in my country Sad ).
Compaq (HP), has the best support i've ever seen, my computer broke down, and they came to my house to get it, and returned it to me 3 days later, as good as new, and i didn't pay anything at all, no problems. So, it's hard for me to not prefer HP.
My acer is noticeably not as good as an HP, it has less than a year and the outer case has cracks, and seems to break at any time. Plus, it has issues with temperature, it keeps turning the cooler on for no reason at all. But the acer support has been very kind to me, i forgot to activate the warranty extension within the limit time, and they let me activate it now (about 7 months after the end of the period for activation).

My computer is not as good as the one you refer, and i thinks that's a great machine. (Isn't it the aspire 1692wlmi? i think it's the version above mine).
One thing i advise you is to try out that definition of possible. A friend of mine uses it, and has to increase windows font size, and has to be always increasing the zoom on the web pages. Personally, i like the fact that it ads much more workspace to the desktop, but i can't use it because it's bad for the eyes.

I hope i've been able to help Wink

Thanks jgpaiva!  I'll be very gentle with the laptop, trust me.  I don't think there's any phsyical problems with it, my friend's taken good care of it.  And I like the high resolution with everything small...I'm not going to do a lot of reading on the laptop, just mostly multimedia stuff.  I don't know the model at all...I used to know, but I completely forgot!

unfortunately, i can't really say anything interesting about vst instruments as i never seem to have much time to use the ones i've got. for me, making music is always on the 'to do' list and has been that way for about the past 20 years. even though the rise of cubase means it's even more convenient to have a go at knocking something together i still haven't completed anything.

i rushed out and bought steinberg the grand when it came out a few years ago - i ended up selling it a few months back because i never used it - i haven't rushed out to buy the grand 2 - yet.

what's the sort of music that you are doing, superboyac? my intention is still to do something heavily electronic based - sort of boards of canada at their most retro and rythmic - i grew up on vangelis and tangerine dream and tubeway army (numan) so vst instruments are made for what i'm aiming at.

Well, nudone, my style of music is very old school.  I play mostly jazz on piano and organ.  Sometimes I'll play blues (which I just call jazz also), classic rock, and country music, but mostly jazz.  If you look at my avatar, you'll see my Leslie speaker, which is the rotating speaker for my Hammond organ...that's the ultimate keyboard instrument, and having one makes me a real player in the jazz circuit, but unfortunately, I don't make my living on it.

I used the Grand once, it was pretty good.  I haven't tried the Grand 2 yet, but it's probably nice.  I used Kontakt with a 3 GB Bosendorfer piano sample once, and that was awesome.  Now, they have Synthogy Ivory and Ni Akoustik Piano, which are huge multi-DVD samples, which are supposed to sound really good, but I haven't tried it.  As far as other sounds, I primarily just use NI B4 for organ and that's it.  Having a portable organ is my main goal.  I don't have much desire for all that electronic and synthesized music that you were mentioning.  Like I said, I'm totally old school and straight ahead...let's put it this way, I'm a big hit with the over-50 crowd!

6186

Living Room / Re: Coffee vs. Tea

« on: February 16, 2006, 03:32 PM »

It is complicated...that's why I just buy it ready made.  They sell it at any vietnamese restaraunt.

6187

Living Room / Re: Coffee vs. Tea

« on: February 16, 2006, 02:08 PM »

Ha, good read!

In case you guys don't know, let me introduce you to Vietnamese gourmet chilled coffee.  This stuff is great!  I'm somewhat resistant to caffiene, so it takes a lot of it for me to feel the effects, so that's why I never really drink coffee.  But last year, a vietnamese friend of mine let me taste some of this chilled coffee.  It's kind of like a frappachino but much stronger in taste and caffiene.

Basically, it's unfiltered coffee (some special kind with chicory in it) and sweetened condensed milk--which, in case you didn't know, is like super-rich super-thick super-sweet cream about the consistency of toothpase.  They put some of that milk in a cup with a mini percolator on top with coffee.  Then they pour the water in the percolator and let it drip into the cup with the milk for a few minutes.  After it's done, they add ice to the cup and you kind of sip it as it melts.  With all that sugar and strong coffee, it's quite a kick!  And it tastes really good, but strong if you can stand it.

I tried making it myself for a while, but it was too much work, so I just buy some in bulk from a vietnamese chain called Lee's Sandwiches.  It's $15 for half a gallon, but it lasts for about 15 cups of coffee, because you only use about 3-4 fl oz of it.  The rest of the cup is filled with ice and you have to let it melt.  If you drink it straight up, it's just too strong.  Anyway, it's the greatest thing in the world...I can't say it's too healthy however!

Here's a picture of my favorite coffee:

6188

Living Room / Re: I may get a new (used) laptop!

« on: February 16, 2006, 01:39 PM »

Oh, the vst instruments should be fine.  I use another sound card for my musician software...the Echo Indigo IO.  I know there are other things out there, but I like the Echo because it fits in the pcmcia slot.

I didn't know there were other people here who used vst software...I have a whole lot of discussion in me about those!  I love em.  VST completely blows away any of the soundbanks on the pro keyboards.  The only problem is that you need to lug a computer or laptop with you to use it and it's not as easy as just turning the on switch.  But if you could streamline the process as an actively gigging musician, the results are well worth it.

6189

Living Room / I may get a new (used) laptop!

« on: February 16, 2006, 01:19 PM »

I've been begging a friend to sell me his laptop for months now, and he finally may do it.  You see, I've wanted a laptop for a long time, but could never really afford it, especially considering I want some quality components, not just the regular budget Dell.  The laptop will serve two purposes...a multimedia player to connect to the TV and watch DVD's, videos, etc.  And also my musician software so I can play VST instruments with my keyboard at gigs.

Anyway, I'm excited.  Look what I get for $650:

Acer Aspire (I forgot the model)  it's maybe 1.5-2 years old
Pentium M 1.4 or 1.6 (I can't remember)
ATI 256 mb card
100 gb hard drive
2 gb RAM
wide screen (15" some wierd resolution like 1,680 x 1,050)
DVDR drive
all the wifi stuff built in
+bonus 80 gb portable usb drive

I know it's a great deal, I can't wait!  I've never had a laptop besides an 5-year-old, broken Compaq that will crash after 1 hour continuous use (my brother in law gave it to me).

6190

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Uninstallers (a very short look at what I've tried!)

« on: February 16, 2006, 01:08 PM »

I reviewed Total Uninstaller a few months ago on another forum.  Later today, I'll repost that review over here.

6191

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for good computer 2.1 speaker system?

« on: February 12, 2006, 08:27 PM »

You can only attach directly to a HiFi speaker if it is 4ohm otherwise at full volume anything above 4ohm you will struggle to get sound out of .

The way i would do it is use your speaker output of the comp and using the appropriate connectors and cable connect it to whatever mini stereo you have assuming it has sound inputs(usually RCA  ), that's how i've connected my comp to my main stereo no more bloody changing discs

then it's a matter of adjusting the comp's soundcard volume output to whatever strength you want the stereo to produce, in other words if you set the comp's sound output to low you'll have to turn up the stereo volume to full to hear it etc

-scorp (February 12, 2006, 02:27 AM)

Ah, I see.  Maybe I'll just take my Sanyo boombox to work and use that, it has RCA plugs in the back which I used with my computer's sound card at home for the last 10 years.  I never really complained about it's sound, so there's something to be said about that.

6192

General Software Discussion / Re: Who else is sick of the cursor jumping around in web-browsers?

« on: February 12, 2006, 08:24 PM »

Yeah, thanks.  That's good advice.

6193

General Software Discussion / Who else is sick of the cursor jumping around in web-browsers?

« on: February 11, 2006, 03:30 PM »

Who else here gets annoyed by the unpredictable behavior of the cursor in all web browsing programs and web pages.  Whether it's IE or Firefox or whatever, sometimes you load a page, and you click somwhere, only to see the cursor jump to some search field.  Or while a page is loading, you try clicking in the address bar and it doesn't stay put.  Or when you do pick something, it automatically highlights everything in the field, so you have to do a double click to get off of the highlight, and then you don't time it right and you end up quintuple clicking or something like that.

I know it's handy sometimes, like when you load google and you just start typing because the cursor autmotically goes to the search field.  But it's generally more annoying than not.  At least to me.  I don't like all these webpages coercing me to do this and that, even if they think it's more convenient.  I'll click where I want to click, when I want to click.

Also, some of these google plugins for firefox could be done better, in my opinion.  Like the google bar, sometimes I'll start typing and it drops down a box of recent history, but I can't keep on typing.  I have to go press escape and then I can start typing again.   

OK, rant over.

6194

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for good computer 2.1 speaker system?

« on: February 10, 2006, 03:21 PM »

Wait...I was just thinking, why would I need a USB cable to connect to a Hi Fi speaker system?  Wouldn't it work if I simply went from the regular speaker connection of the sound card to the line-in of the Hi Fi speaker?  I don't understand.  Is the Hi Fi speaker even using the sound card?  SOmething's weird here.

6195

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for good computer 2.1 speaker system?

« on: February 10, 2006, 03:15 PM »

Good stuff, Gothi[c]!  Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, I bet it sounds great.  By the way, those springs are for reverb, that's how it used to be done.  I have the same thing on my Hammond organ.

But I can't use something that bulky for the office.  I'm leaning towards the Philips USB link thing Gerome was talking about, but I'd like to know the model of it first.  Are there other hifi systems that plug into the computer with USB?  That seems pretty cool.

6196

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for good computer 2.1 speaker system?

« on: February 10, 2006, 10:37 AM »

I have an HI FI Philips with an USB PC Link, so i can plug my PC to it and i can stream my music onto my Philips  : no need to plug speakers, and the sound quality can not be compared to speakerz

-Gerome (February 09, 2006, 06:11 PM)

Gerome, I think I might go for that.  Could you give me a model number or a link where I can see a picture of it?  Thanks.

6197

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for good computer 2.1 speaker system?

« on: February 10, 2006, 10:30 AM »

I'm liking the logitech x-230, but the one negative about it is that it has too much bass even with the subwoofer turned all the way down.  That's bad for jazz, which is what I listen to, and what a couple of other users are complaining about on the web.  But it seems to be a good choice overall.

That Phillips Expanium one doesn't sound bad, if I can figure out exactly where to put it.  I remember that from 1994-2006, I just used an old 1984 Sanyo boombox to connect to my soundcard, and it was pretty good.  Now I use my Roland keyboard amp because I have an extra one.  It just goes to show, that like many other things, it helps to think outside of the box.  I've always been suspicious of these speakers that are marketed for computers only, as if they are a different kind of speaker that a regular speaker.  They are probably more cheaply made, and the only benefit is that they are plug n play and visually probably match the computer look.  But I guess the best thing to do is to get the best speaker in general, not the best computer speaker.

That being said, because this is not for my house, but for the office, I may have to put my elticism aside and just get a computer speaker.  But, like I said, I may do the boombox if I can figure out how.

6198

Living Room / Re: Recommendations for good computer 2.1 speaker system?

« on: February 09, 2006, 06:02 PM »

Hello,

Frankly ?
The best i've ever seen is my actual config :
a good USB PC Link between my PC and my MP3/CDR/W Philips HIFI stereo Expanium techology with 75 WRMS
Why buying something else ? 

-Gerome (February 09, 2006, 05:52 PM)

Please forgive me, but I don't understand exactly what you are talking about.  Do you mean you just attach a boombox to your computer?  Is there a link you can give for this?

Actually, if what you are talking about is a boombox, I don't think it will work.  I have to have small speakers so I can put it on my desk.

6199

Living Room / Recommendations for good computer 2.1 speaker system?

« on: February 09, 2006, 05:43 PM »

I was wondering if anyone here had some good recommendations for a good 2.1 speaker system.  I'm going to use it here at work, so it will be at a fairly low volume, so pristine quality isn't necessary.  I want to keep it under $100, maybe even $50, if possible.

I have these speakers that go under my flat panel monitor from Dell, but there's no subwoofer, so I want something with a subwoofer (and I can't justify the company paying for it).  Anyway, I'm looking at the following, but any other recommendations are welcome:
-Dell A425, or A525 (by Altec Lansing, I can find some on ebay)
-Various Logitech 2.1 speakers

That's all I know of so far.  Thanks.

6200

General Software Discussion / Re: Question for Excel experts...

« on: February 09, 2006, 10:51 AM »

Another cool tool (though it isn't the Cat's Meow!) is an auditing add-in I found yesterday.  Go to http://vangelder.orcon.net.nz/ go to his Excel page (using the bar on the left) and look for "AudXL 1.10 Add-In."  I dont like the way it formats formulas, but it's a cool idea and has given me some of my own.  Excel is extremely powerful, a cheaper replacement than MatLab in any event!

Incidentally, if anyone is tired of the Excel sort order I am almost finished with a module that does a natural sort in excel.  It can also sort by cell or font color and allows more than four columns (no real limit...).  Let me know,

Kevin

Kevin

-kfitting (February 09, 2006, 05:42 AM)

Cool!  Yes please let me (us) know more about it.