Messages

201

General Software Discussion / Re: What is the currently best Desktop Search software?

« on: September 06, 2013, 11:21 PM »

The warning in red atop the reply text box is telling me to start a new thread because this one is so ancient.... but after all, I am a professional thread necromancer!

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So anyway... I guess everyone is perfectly satisfied with their desktop search engines? Since no one sems to be posting about them anymore? There didn't appear to be any consensus winner here. E.g., the poll shows Copernicus as very popular, but I think that those votes were mostly before it became what it is today: a "Pro" version with less features than the older free version had.

Has X1 died? I hear almost nothing about it anymore. WDS is still hit or miss for me. Sometimes it finds items that amaze me and other times it misses very obvious searches. I also dislike the search bar being in the Start menu. Can that be changed? If you lose focus on the Start menu you often lose the search too. I hate that!

Thanks!

Jim

202

Living Room / Re: Funny Animal Videos

« on: August 30, 2013, 12:18 PM »

This one is my favorite!

Jim

203

Living Room / Re: Summon the NSA

« on: August 10, 2013, 10:47 PM »

Yep! And I hope I'm helping.   

Hell, what do I care about lists... pretty sure I'm on most of 'em by now anyway!

Jim

204

General Software Discussion / Re: RightNote version 3.0.0 released

« on: August 10, 2013, 10:25 AM »

I purchased RN Pro about two years ago - I think. I refused to purchase the Ultra Recall so-called "update" where they wanted $50 with no new features, so I started checking out other similar programs. Ones that would allow downloading web content that I need or want for reference. I started running MyInfo and RightNote in parallel and grabbed whatever content I wanted in both programs. Neither has anywhere near all the capabilities of Ultra Recall Pro, but in truth I never used all of UR's power features. Plus UR would roll over and play dead - or make itself completely useless in some other way - more and more and Kinook was not offering any help, so I figured that if I could at least get most of the features of UR that I really needed then I would be satisfied.

While RightNote failed me a few times the developer has been responsive to my support tickets and got me rolling again each time. MyInfo seemed to work flawlessly for a few months but then I ran into a host of problems with it. And the developer of MyInfo is not nearly as helpful as RightNote's.

So I have been importing a little of my data from Ultra Recall into RightNote over the past several months plus capturing web content as needed. It has held up pretty well but still is lacking some features I feel I need. Biggest negatives I have found:

• Attributes for each note/item. There simply aren't any. I was spoiled by UR's Attributes Pane! MyInfo has a feature that is somewhat similar and I guess I would call that "halfway decent". RightNote has nothing similar at all. Bummer.
• In RightNote the main UI is a window/browser with tabs across the top. These tabs are called "pages" and each item within a page is a note. Notes are listed in a tree to the left of the UI. A big problem, IMO, is moving notes between pages. Should be able to drag and drop but I have had only very limited success doing this, and I've even lost some notes for good. (NOT a good thing!) So I have abandoned drag and drop for now, which leaves me with RN's apparent favored method. Cut a note from one page and then - guess! Paste it in another page! Almost barbaric IMO, but that's how I have to do it.
• A more recent problem is the Evernote sync feature. I have it all set up as directed, but... after what appears to be a successful sync none of my RightNote notes appear in the designated notebook in Evernote. I haven't reported this yet to the developer as I am still working through my process to see if I can find where the disconnect is.

I know there are more nits I could pick but they aren't jumping into my head right away so they must be relatively minor.

Again, since the release notes for this new "major" upgrade concentrate on the Evernote sync process I don’t think there are any other improvements of note. And I don’t like the prospect of paying ~$30 for an upgrade that doesn’t really offer me anything. I was really hoping that BauerApps - the developer of RightNote - was NOT one of those who insists on releasing a major upgrade every year whether it is needed or not, but I guess that was too much to expect. Rats!

Thanks!

Jim

205

Living Room / Re: Summon the NSA

« on: August 10, 2013, 07:20 AM »

Oops! I'm on the list now, I guess.   

Oh we'll...  I needed a little excitement around here anyway!

Jim

206

General Software Discussion / Re: RightNote version 3.0.0 released

« on: August 06, 2013, 11:38 AM »

Ouch...

RightNote Pro is not an inexpensive program, so 50% of that won't be overly affordable either. With regard to the Evernote sync, I have it all set up w/auth token from Evernote, separate notebook created, etc. but though I have tried syncing notes several times no RightNote notes ever end up in my Evernote account. I hadn't bothered to write to Rael about this as the Evernote sync isn't that important to me, at least not just yet. But if that is the main "improvement" for RN 3.0 then I think I'll have to pass for now. However I just know that future features added will probably grab me by the..  uhhh...  throat (!) at some point down the line. Either that or anytime I submit a support ticket I'll probably be told that I must upgrade for the fix.

I am fast reaching the very bottom of my software budget for this decade!

Jim

207

Living Room / Re: How Much Do You Trust Wikipedia?

« on: August 03, 2013, 02:13 PM »

Damn - do you know what is truly sad? That I am not even a little bit shocked or surprised by any of this.

Jim

208

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes Secure Backup Beta launches

« on: July 31, 2013, 01:18 PM »

Thanks for your always valued opinion, 40hz!   

Jim

209

Living Room / Re: Malwarebytes Secure Backup Beta launches

« on: July 31, 2013, 12:10 PM »

This is available on BDJ today - the Pro version that gives you 100GB of storage. Regular price = $59.95 per year; today's price = $29.95 per year. Although I don’t know if that $29.95 annual subscription rate is only for the first year or for future years too.

Merle One asked the question at the BDJ product page comments section, but no one from Malwarebytes is posting there. (Not a good sign!) Merle posted that the cart states that your renewal price is the same as your purchase price, and he seems to think the discount will continue after the first year, though that seems highly unlikely.

Has anyone used this service? It would be particularly nice if you could use that space for storage as you see fit but I think you have to use their backup software.

Thanks!

Jim

210

Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor and DCUpdater Problem

« on: July 24, 2013, 08:49 PM »

Hi mouser.

I don’t start the updater from the start menu; I have Chameleon Startup Manager start it directly from the Program Files folder.

I checked SSC and it did  indeed have Check for Updates at Startup selected, so I deselected it. I opened dcupdater (which had been open but minimized to the notification tray) and it still had the checkbox and SSC selected. So I exited out of dcupdater completely and restarted it. Now it doesn’t have the checkbox option anymore. Whew!

Here's the thing, though: I didn't change my SSC update settings. It has either always been configured to check on startup or that was recently introduced and is auto-selected upon installation.

Either way, dcupdater has never appeared that way, with the "Check only for SSC Updates" right in the front window.

Thanks for the solution!

Jim

211

Screenshot Captor / Re: Screenshot Captor and DCUpdater Problem

« on: July 24, 2013, 03:20 PM »

Hi Tom.

if you start dcupdater from a particular programme it will only search for updates only for that app. AFAIK this has always been the case.

I don’t start dcupdater from any DC program; according to Process Explorer it is started directly from Chameleon Startup Manager.  (Which replaces my startup "folder") And Chameleon starts it from C:\Program Files (x86)\Dcupdater\

I checked the dcupdater.ini file and I can't find anything in there that appears to limit updates to SSC. But that is exactly what dcupdater is doing!

So end result is that I have to check my DC programs for updates manually. Kinda sucks to be tossed back to the days before dcupdater! Oh well... I guess mouser has other plans.

Thanks!

Jim

212

Screenshot Captor / Screenshot Captor and DCUpdater Problem

« on: July 19, 2013, 12:16 PM »

Hi Mouser!

I posted in the DCUpdater forum a week and a half ago but no one seems to look at that forum, so I figured I'd post the issue here.


Here's a link to that post: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=30528.msg330577#msg330577

DCUpdater stopped updating my DC apps a while ago - not sure exactly when it stopped. Apparently it was after one of the fairly recent SSC updates.  When it finally did appear on my screen with an update a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that there is a new setting for it right on the main screen: it says to only look for updates to Screenshot Captor with a checkbox next to it, and the checkbox is always selected. (I have deselected it several times but it is always checked again when I take a look.) When I first found it and deselected it DCUpdater found a slew of updates that I was missing!

Obviously this particular version of DCUpdater is coded somewhere to always check that box and thus only look for updates to SSC and nothing else. This is not a good thing since I have a lot of DC programs installed that had been using DCUpdater to retrieve updates. I did find another instance of DCUpdater installed but it seems that they never run anymore. Only the SSC-specific version runs at Windows startup, while the normal version used to start automatically. Did this crippled (IMO) version replace the normal version in the startup folder?

Anyway, I guess my real question is how do I get the normal version of DCUpdater to run and do away with this goofy SSC version? I say that with the presumption that the "normal" version will find updates to SSC along with the rest of my DC apps. True?

Oh, one other little issue: DCUpdater keeps reporting that there is a different version of the Easy Screencast program on the web but it shows an older version than what is already installed. I would post more details but I am posting this from an iPad and I will no doubt loose this entire post if I try to go back and look at my other post!

Thanks!

Jim

213

Skwire Empire / Re: Release: sWeather (tray-based weather app)

« on: July 11, 2013, 11:07 AM »

Last night and this morning it appears that the service was down. No data, no icons, etc. Looked like this:

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Jim

214

DcUpdater / Re: DcUpdater reports incorrect version of installed app

« on: July 09, 2013, 10:11 PM »

Hope it's not a problem to add on to this thread but I am seeing similar issues with dcupdater.

First, I was getting NO update notifications at all so I manually opened the window tonight and lo and behold I see a line there I hadn't seen before: "Only show updates for Screenshot Captor" with a checkbox next to it - checked. Where did that come from? I have more DC programs installed that used to be updated with dcupdater but now it excludes them, apparently intentionally.

So I deselected that box and checked manually (with the big Check Now button) and received updates for three DC programs, including SSC. However after the updates completed that same checkbox was selected again. Why is that? It prevents dcupdater from checking for the other program's updates!

Also, a few other little oddities:

• Easy Screencast Recorder shows I have version 1.09.01 installed but that a newer version is available on the web... 1.07.01 !
• Also, it shows that I updated Screenshot Captor from V.4.03 to 4.05, rather than the correct version numbers 4.3 to 4.5.

(Screen cap attached)
[/list]

Thanks for any help - when you get a chance. No hurry on these little boo-boos!

Jim

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215

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: NoteZilla

« on: July 07, 2013, 11:34 AM »

Dormouse,

Just a couple weeks ago I posted something in a thread about Stickies by Tom Revell and mentioned why I won't upgrade Notezilla. Conceptworld posted back that they will shortly be releasing an update that will eliminate use of the cloud and re-allow using your network for sending notes to others. Don’t know how serious they are but here's a link to their post:

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=35092.msg329555#msg329555

Jim

216

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: WaggleImage on Bits du Jour (Nov 18 2008)

« on: July 05, 2013, 05:15 AM »

Ha - me three! Must be  a record!

Jim

217

Living Room / Re: Microsoft ending TechNet subscription activations effective august 2013

« on: July 02, 2013, 10:28 AM »

Thanks for the comment, wraith. Good to hear from someone who has already considered this.

I don’t see the need to abandon Microsoft Windows just yet, but when I try to work out problems on the notebooks I purchased for my daughters - both running Windows 8 - I can see the possibility in the not-so-distant future. I just want to know what I can and can't do if or when the time comes.

Thanks again!

Jim

218

Living Room / Re: Microsoft ending TechNet subscription activations effective august 2013

« on: July 02, 2013, 09:26 AM »

No "Sorry's" allowed here!!

Besides, if at some point I have to move to Linux because I simply refuse to use Windows for whatever reason, then I'll just have to learn to deal. That said it would probably be in my best interest to do what I posted above: Keep my current main box on Windows 7 Pro and setup my previous "main box" with Linux. That way I can take my time and become accustomed to Linux on the other machine; learn what software is available, which ones I prefer, etc. Then if/when the time comes for a complete switch to Linux I would at least be well aware and hopefully as comfortable as I can be with it. As opposed to just committing fully all at once.

Plus this way I can go at a more comfortable pace with Linux.

Thanks again!

Jim

219

Living Room / Re: Microsoft ending TechNet subscription activations effective august 2013

« on: July 02, 2013, 08:53 AM »

Oh well... 40hz - prepare yourself for a lot of questions about implementing Linux!

-J-Mac (July 02, 2013, 07:39 AM)

It's really not that big a deal. Seriously. It's not.

Grab a copy of Linux Mint's Cinnamon edition (or something similar) and just try using it. It's not much different from Windows. Most people that just use their computer for "productivity" will hardly even notice the difference.

I've booted Mint off a live DVD for non-tech types and told them it was an advanced experimental version of Windows that wasn't due out until 2015. And guess what? Most of them loved it. Raved about how nice it looked, how smooth it felt, how it was great to see a familiar desktop environment again, etc. etc. etc. They'd play around with it for a few minutes and were soon off and running, getting things done.

But if I told them it was Linux first, they'd immediately get confused and convince themselves they couldn't use it.

Interesting, no?
 
Suggestion: you have nothing to fear but fear itself. Just give it a try. You'll be amazed how far things have progressed in the Linux world - very much to Microsoft's chagrin.

-40hz (July 02, 2013, 08:39 AM)

Well, I don’t think I would want to jump right in with my primary box. If I screw something up I would probably be down for a while until I could straighten it out! Plus I would then have to reinstall all my software (gobs of it!!) and that is when I would find out that a lot of it won't run on Linux. (Is that even a little accurate??)

Best bet is to install it on my last "primary" computer, which was running on Windows 7 Home Premium. It was built in May 2006 but it was fairly high-tech for its time. It has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+, 2200.0 MHz, 4 GB Corsair SDRAM, an nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT w/ 512 MBytes of GDDR3 SDRAM, and three HDDs internal. I haven't used it very much since I got my current machine from Puget Systems in January 2012, but it is in pretty good shape. I wouldn’t have to worry if I put that older computer out of action for a while.

Of course I have to wait until I am somewhat stress-free... I'd hate losing it and kicking it across the room! (My toes can't take that stuff anymore!!        )

Thanks!

Jim

220

Living Room / Re: Microsoft ending TechNet subscription activations effective august 2013

« on: July 02, 2013, 07:39 AM »

Damn! I just saw the article about this at InfoWorld and was looking to see if anyone else had reported it. (Should have known that 40hz was on top of it!).

Truly a shame. Microsoft claims this is a direct result of piracy - mainly sharing of licenses. Continuing to sell subscriptions is pretty crappy IMO, since they aren't mentioning the extremely short life of what is left of TechNet.

Why aren't we surprised at this behavior?

Oh well... 40hz - prepare yourself for a lot of questions about implementing Linux!

Jim

221

General Software Discussion / Re: Stickies - Part of the Zhorn Software Donationware Series

« on: June 27, 2013, 09:46 PM »

I downloaded the latest version last week - V.7.1e - but twice now it has frozen in my sys tray after running for a few hours. I had to end the process to kill it. I wonder if it has problems with Windows 7 x64.

Jim

222

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst Javascript/other intrusions?

« on: June 27, 2013, 01:06 PM »

Really? I haven't noticed any such hit. I do have a fairly monstrous machine though, so that might be the difference.

Jim

223

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst Javascript/other intrusions?

« on: June 27, 2013, 11:38 AM »

I use Ad Muncher and neither of the sites mentioned showed any floating ads for me.   

Jim

224

General Software Discussion / Re: Stickies - Part of the Zhorn Software Donationware Series

« on: June 27, 2013, 09:59 AM »

Hello Jim,

Thanks for mentioning about Notezilla

We will be adding back network support in few weeks. You will be able to send sticky notes via LAN without the need for cloud.

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

Regards,
Gautam Jain

-conceptworld (June 27, 2013, 05:56 AM)

Thanks for the heads-up Gautam! That is good news - and will no doubt cause me to upgrade when that happens. As long as all my notes will still be stored locally and not on your servers. Is this the case?

I know when the new Notezilla version was announced you had said that the cloud version was necessary to offer smartphone versions. I don’t know if you ever got the smartphone apps off the ground - I don’t see anything in the Google Play store. But to be honest I use Evernote for stuff I think I might need available on all platforms. I wouldn’t be using Notezilla on my Android phone also - too many notes in too many different places!

Thanks again!

Jim

225

General Software Discussion / Re: Stickies - Part of the Zhorn Software Donationware Series

« on: June 24, 2013, 11:29 AM »

I love Stickies!

Though I have Notezilla installed, the current version of it is most likely the last I will use, due to their new version requiring that you use their "cloud" to transmit notes. No more network use allowed in the new version.

Stickies has had the ability to transmit notes via a Stickies Server that is easily set up. I've used Stickies for many years now, and I just reinstalled it when I realized I had forgotten to when I got my latest computer. What a pleasure to start using it again.   

I donated to Tom Revell long before I was even aware of DC. As a matter of fact, I believe that Stickies was the first program for which I sent a donation. Got me off to a good start. I was surprised to see the old forum still there. So many developers have moved to "Get Satisfaction" or ZenDesk for support. It's not posted to very much but it appears that Tom still replies on occasion.

Stickies is definitely a good program that has lasted through the years.

Thank you.

Jim