Messages

2576

General Software Discussion / Re: Getting started with Access?

« on: December 30, 2007, 05:30 PM »

IMO, it seems easy enough when you start setting up a database. However I always run into problems as soon as I actually try to start using a form or table. Inevitably a VB edit window opens and I am immediately lost. Or maybe just intimidated. But I never do well within the VB edit window. If I perform any editing there, I apparently mess something up enough to make the database not work well at all anymore. Of course if I do nothing in the VB Editor, then I cannot use the database again, because it insists on throwing me back in there until I do something.  And as I already said, if I DO anything...  On and on, a vicious cycle has then started and another database attempt is abandoned.

Odd thing is I used to work with dBase III+ fairly often and with much success back in the mid to late '80's.  But MS Access -- which granted has a much nicer UI and looks as if it will be a snap -- just seems to confound me, all because something always opens the VB Editor!

Really frustrating!!

Jim

2577

General Software Discussion / IMAPSize

« on: December 29, 2007, 02:08 PM »

I just downloaded and installed this application, IMAPSize.  It allows you to view all folders in multiple IMAP email accounts, has a lot of searching capabilities, etc.  I would only have limited use for it but I thought that others may find it useful.

IMAPSize

Jim

2578

Screenshot Captor / Re: Way More Than Your Average Screen Capture Tool!

« on: December 28, 2007, 10:16 PM »

Wow - a lot of advice there, Tinman!

I do uninstall the drivers, but not nearly as extensive a removal as you direct.  Actually I have instructions from Falcon Northwest Support, which basically is not more than to uninstall the display drivers. (The Forceware uninstall dialog gives me the option to uninstall everything or to select individual parts to remove; Falcon wrote for me to only uninstall the display driver and nothing else. They're wrong?).

I do have a SoundBlaster card - the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi.  But I never uninstalled its drivers first.

As for reinstalling Windows, I was actually getting ready to try a repair installation of XP Pro.  I already downloaded SP2 and Autostreamer so I could slipstream it as XP Pro goes through the repair install. And I am copying all over to external drives and to the HP machine I have networked to this one.

Thanks for all the info!

Jim

2579

General Software Discussion / Re: Two Programs I am Seeking

« on: December 28, 2007, 04:30 PM »

J-Mac and others: Yadabyte Subtext is great, thanks! It's a good example of non-bloated application that doest just what it's supposed to do.

However, I found two small issues:

• First, it uses Windows clipboard, which is probably necessary, but might not be always comfortable. Not a big issue, as I'm using Ditto, though.
  
• Second, it always puts a space after the pasted text. This should be so when typing a space, but when I press Enter, I'd like to have a new line in the text, not the space. Anyone able to modify this? (It's an open-source.)

-yksyks (December 28, 2007, 07:43 AM)

For a free app that was written a couple years ago, it IS pretty cool. It has worked for me so far.

Jim

2580

Living Room / Re: Power and Ports - The Ever Diminishing Resources in My Office!

« on: December 28, 2007, 04:28 PM »

Yeah got to hate this as I got a large belkin power board & can only use 7 of its 8 plugs even though its got extra space between the plugs.

-a_lunatic (December 28, 2007, 01:30 PM)

Some have the block halfway between the two ends, so you can still plug in to a regular outlet. I wonder why more don't do that.

Jim

2581

Living Room / Re: Power and Ports - The Ever Diminishing Resources in My Office!

« on: December 28, 2007, 04:25 PM »

I guess I could install a PCI card - I just need to get some more detailed specs for the mobo so I know exactly where to power it from.

-J-Mac (December 28, 2007, 11:00 AM)

The bus carries the power for most PCI cards (except some really power-hungry video cards, afaik), so you don't need to worry about that. I had to add an additional card myself, with both USB and firewire for video. Just plug it into the slot and go.

-CWuestefeld (December 28, 2007, 01:18 PM)

Sounds good - I'll look into getting one quick!

3D sound: adding "texturing" and doppler (and other) effects, 3D aural positioning, etc.

-f0dder (December 28, 2007, 06:21 AM)

This is a pet peeve of mine. There is nothing "3D" about this. There's isn't even anything 3D about 5.1 surround sound on your entertainment center. The whole 3D sound thing is a marketing gimmick.

Think about it: what does 3D mean? It's short for "3 dimensional", i.e., having three dimensions. These dimensions are commonly referred to as width, depth, and height.

Now, what dimensions does your 3D sound card, or your entertainment center offer? It has stereo sound, that is, left-right, which corresponds to the width dimension. It has surround, i.e., front-back, corresponding to depth. But nowhere, not out of your fancy DVD player and amplifier, nor out of your EAX processor, will you find any indication of height. This is just fine with me, but I resent that marketing is so clearly false in what's being promised.

-CWuestefeld (December 28, 2007, 01:18 PM)

Exactly why I mentioned it - it's silly.

Returning from my brief thread hijacking -- I do appreciate the need for power transformer boxes in order to reduce desktop clutter and keep the device itself cooler. However, I really hate those "wall wart" boxes that have the plugs built-in, occupying three outlets by overlapping one one each side. It would work out better if, like most laptop computers, there were cords coming out both sides of the transformer.

Not all USB hubs need to be powered. It depends on what you plan to plug into them. Something like a flash drive takes little enough power that it can run off what was supplied by the host. However, some devices take so much power that some cheap USB ports can't supply them adequately (e.g., my Dell Axim PDA draws as much as 1.2A when the USB spec only requires that it be given 0.5A, which is a real crime).

-CWuestefeld (December 28, 2007, 01:18 PM)

I do have a couple nice non-powered hubs, but I also know someone who apparently burned up his bus by over-drawing high amperage from it using a device that should have been on a powered hub. Or at least that's what his PC builder said. Either way, they fixed it free, so there wasn't really a need to give him a cock and bull story about it. I don't know enough myself to know what really happened.

Thanks.

Jim

2582

Living Room / Re: Power and Ports - The Ever Diminishing Resources in My Office!

« on: December 28, 2007, 11:01 AM »

Hey f0dder - I was just looking at your Powerslave thread and it looks like you have a similar system, from what I can see.

Jim

2583

Living Room / Re: Power and Ports - The Ever Diminishing Resources in My Office!

« on: December 28, 2007, 11:00 AM »

f0dder,

I have a security camera system connected to my main PC, so I can't use any of the power saving protocols on that one. And the HP Media Center PC simply refuses to recover from standby a good bit of the time. I was using it and my wife - who is using that PC now - claimed it wouldn't wake up a lot of times. I thought maybe she was doing something to somehow prevent it - I have no idea what, though - but I have now tried it on a few random occasions and she's right - it won't wake up sometimes. I tried to find out why, but my wife now just turns off the monitor whenever she is done with it.

I guess I could install a PCI card - I just need to get some more detailed specs for the mobo so I know exactly where to power it from.

Thanks.

Jim

2584

Living Room / Re: Laptop hard drive... 5400 or 7200 ?

« on: December 28, 2007, 02:43 AM »

5400.  On the notebook you will NOT notice the difference, except for the price. Not worth the cost, in money and battery duration.

Jim

2585

Living Room / Power and Ports - The Ever Diminishing Resources in My Office!

« on: December 28, 2007, 02:30 AM »

Do others have the same problems I seem to have in my little office at home?

Two questions I find myself asking... well, myself as I sit at my desk:

"Where in the hell am I going to plug THIS in?!?"  and  "Why don't they put more USB ports on computers if every new peripheral is connected via USB?!?"

(A corollary to the first question above is, "Why do so many manufacturers put the stupid transformer blocks at the plug end of the cord?!?")

First, the power issue.  In my office I have two PCs running most of the time; my main box, and my previous main box, which my wife now uses for gaming.  My PC has two monitors connected.  Add to these my wireless router, cable modem, external USB drives, a Canon MP830 All-in-One Printer/Fax/Scanner/Copier, a few powered cradles for handheld devices, desktop phone, desk lamp, PC speaker systems.... I could go on for a while.And that's just MY side of the room!  Then there's the HP Media Center box my wife uses along with all its peripherals.  Then there's the opposite corner with a shredder, air purifier (to help clear cigarette smoke out? Go figure...), a couple battery chargers, a Dust Buster, a couple more lamps, etc., etc.  There are a total of 4 receptacles in the room, but not all on separate circuits.  I am pretty sure that there are two separate 15A circuits feeding the room - though some power is going to the room next this one, I think.

I keep wondering at what point my circuit panel in the cellar is going to just vaporize or something. I mean, how much more of this can it take?  BTW, the heat in the room gets stifling so I now have some fans in there to keep things a little cooler. Fortunately both PCs have cooling systems inside the cases, plus graphics cards with attached coolers, so at least the PC equipment itself is staying cool enough. But the rest of the room is HOT.  So now I make sure all monitors and lights are turned off when not in use. That has helped a little. But I just know that soon I will be paying electricians to come in and give me MORE POWER. Which will not be inexpensive as I live in a 100+ years old house.  There must be a better way........

And now for my USB port rant. What is it with the recent proliferation of equipment that must be connected via USB ports - wait, no; check that. USB 2.0 ports! Heaven forbid I connect something with USB 2.0 capabilities to an old, stinking, rotten USB 1.1 port!  Then of course my operating system starts yelling at me with those annoying little popups: You have such and such connected to a USB 1.1 port, you flaming idiot!!! Fix it NOW!

Virtually everything I own must be connected to a USB port on my PC! I almost believe I could jump start my truck by connecting it to a USB port - as long as it is USB 2.0, naturally! Keyboard, mouse, Wacom tablet, mobile phone, All-in-One, external drives, speaker system, microphone, etc., etc.  I have USB hubs, though I had to replace them of course to get USB 2.0 hubs! What else?!  And these hubs, naturally, must be powered! (See question #1).  But then some equipment insists that I had better not plug it into some funky old hub! No, they have to be connected directly to a USB port on my PC. And some stuff goes even beyond that, insisting that they be connected to a REAR USB PORT, and not a front port.  And I am totally serious about that - no kidding!

Fortunately I had the foresight to tell Falcon Northwest when I ordered this Mach V that I would need as many USB ports as it was possible to add to a PC; as long as the total number of ports was not less than 15 or so. When they got done laughing their lunch through their noses, they politely told me that they could give me 8 USB ports. I insisted on 10 minimum and they agreed. Well, actually they just lied. Outright. When I received the PC it had all of 8 USB ports. However as I started using them I found that some didn't work. I submitted a support ticket and they told me......

"Oh, yeah. We knew that."  What?!?! You knew that?!?  there are 4 rear USB ports, all working. But in the front there are also 4 USB ports - only 2 working. According to Falcon, the Asus 8N32 SLI Deluxe motherboard can only support 6 total ports. Then, as only a completely stupid, non-techie type could do, I asked a terminally stupid question:  "If only 6 can work, then why did you build 8 ports on it?"  Their reply went something like,  "Duhhhhhhh!!  Because you wanted a multi-card reader, and that is using the power that WOULD have gone to those other two front ports. So there, you idiot!" Or something like that.

Still seems kind of odd to me that a machine with dual processors, three onboard HDD's: 1 - 80 GB, and 2 - 500 GB, - a high-end cooled graphics card, a 3D sound card (and, no - I have no idea how they make sound into "3D"!), a TV Tuner, two ethernet adapters, three optical drives, can only support 6 lousy USB ports!!  My HP Media Center box - 5 years old and less than one-fourth of the price of this PC -and it has 8 USB ports. Why is that? Of course I can't ask Falcon that now - they'll really laugh then.

But seriously folks, if more and more peripherals are going to be created with only USB connectors, PC makers are going to have to respond someday with larger buses to support more doggone ports.

And as for the power problem - well, what would Al Gore think?

Jim

2586

General Software Discussion / Re: Two Programs I am Seeking

« on: December 28, 2007, 01:29 AM »

J-Mac: for your 2nd question, check out this thread for some useful suggestions..

• IDEA: predictive text for ms word

-lanux128 (December 28, 2007, 12:19 AM)

lanux, I found a nice, little app on one of the threads you listed. YadaBytes SubText. Tiny, portable, and it works just like a Blackberry. Pretty cool! I'm using that now! It doesn't have a lot of features, but that was the problem with a lot of these; they have so many other features that they end up interfering where I don't need them!

Thanks.

Jim

2587

General Software Discussion / Re: Two Programs I am Seeking

« on: December 27, 2007, 11:46 PM »

For your 2nd question, did you try DirectAccess ? Or how about Jitbit's AutoText

-mitzevo (December 27, 2007, 11:21 PM)

Thanks for those mitzevo!

I was looking at Direct Access already but for some odd reason I had not yet come across Auto Text.  (And with that name you'd think the searches would have put that right up there)

Are you using either? I'm hoping for some positive feedback before I do my usual thing and just install them all one by one!  (No wonder my registry is the size of a medium state, like Illinois!)

Thanks.

Jim

2588

General Software Discussion / Two Programs I am Seeking

« on: December 27, 2007, 11:09 PM »

I am looking for two particular applications.  One is a general timer/stopwatch/countdown application, similar to Timer/Timer Pro from Acute Software.  I do use Instant Boss and Stopwatch from our own coders here, along with a couple of other time and reminder-related utilities, but it's just too many to perform very related tasks. I am hoping for one to do a number of things.

The second application is a bit more involved: a program that can insert auto-text based on typed shortcuts. Something similar to MS Word's Auto-Text feature.  I used to use Pocomail as my email client and it has a feature that I used for repetitive phrases in my email messages. You create a phrase and then give it a shortcut. For example, I used "zbr" for "Best Regards" followed by a comma and two line breaks, for a closing in email messages. Blackberry has a similar feature for use on their devices.  BTW, I use the letter "Z" as a lead for most of my shortcuts only because it is unlikely that I would be typing a regular word and have the combination of "z" followed by the initials of the phrase I am shortcutting.  Thus the "zbr" for "Best Regards".

There is a program that is somewhat useful but too annoying overall to use, IMO. It is called PhraseExpress, but it pops up replacement suggestions while you are typing - as I said that can get a little annoying. Also, it has a number of built-in keyboard shortcuts that I definitely did not want, but they insist and instruct you to shut down all other programs that have any keyboard shortcuts so there won't be any conflicts. I really hate when a developer hard codes crap like this and then insists that you must live with it. I decided not to. A good example of how annoying this can be: a few months back I posted here about the Windows+S shortcut that OneNote 2007 uses for clipping suddenly started putting my PC to sleep - literally! Anytime I tried to clip something the PC immediately went dark without warning. The only clue was that I could see the white "progress"-type bar that looked like when my notebook PC was about to hibernate start across the bottom of the screen for a fraction of a second before all went dark. As I said, the developer said, basically, "Tough" and told me to either remove all other apps with KB shortcuts, or shut them down anytime I was running his programs. Yeah, right.

Anyway, does anyone have suggestions for the above two programs?

Thanks.

Jim

2589

Screenshot Captor / Re: Way More Than Your Average Screen Capture Tool!

« on: December 27, 2007, 10:28 PM »

Worst part about any graphics card issue is that Nvidia won't deal with me at all, because I did not purchase the card directly from them, but it was installed in my custom-built rig by Falcon Northwest. Nvidia will only deal with the actual card purchaser.

Of course I am the one seeing all the issues, and with all the diagnostics. Falcon support - well, to be honest some are pretty sharp, and some are even dumber about the PC than I am! (But, hey!  I'm allowed to be dumb about my PC - they aren't!)

I didn't want another Dell or HP machine, and since I'm working with only one arm that functions fully I decided not to build one myself, but to get one built like I want it - and with "real" components - not the "made-to-our-specs stuff that Dell installs. And the PC has crashed since the day I received it and set it up! The HP Media Center PC I replaced with this one is still up and running across the table from me - my wife plays games on it - nothing else. But I use the drives on it for additional "safe" storage... It is definitely safer than storing it on my Mach V. (Two 500 GB SATA hard drives have failed on this one already.)

Jim

2590

Screenshot Captor / Re: Way More Than Your Average Screen Capture Tool!

« on: December 27, 2007, 10:20 PM »

Well, I just installed another new driver (they released two in a couple of weeks, so maybe it's something they inadvertently caused). Right after installing a few home security cameras - WiLife/Luxwerks - as soon as the camera views appeared on screen I started having problems.  After a couple weeks my PC started crashing with the error/Stop message saying that nv4_disp.dll is causing it. That's the Nvidia driver. (GeForce 7900 GTX on an Asus A8N32-SLI-Deluxe motherboard).

First updated driver actually increased the severity of the problem. I just installed the newer driver today. I'll see how it does.

But whenever I try to capture a scrolling window with SSC I get that flashing screen - real annoying - and it won't stop! Can't interrupt it without hot rebooting. If I wait it out, the screen capture looks terrible. Yet SnagIt does that well. Go figure!

Jim

2591

General Software Discussion / Re: 'Number of days to date' program?

« on: December 27, 2007, 05:02 PM »

I'll have to give that a try, tinjaw.  Looks d!

In the past I have used a different program - but not for what you are looking for, Falcon_Four. Date Calculator is a little utility I used to calculate lead times for equipment deliveries on my engineering projects. Everyone in that business always used a lead time "wheel": one of those little plastic date calculators that suppliers would give out.  Date Calculator did about the same but on my PC.  Simple but effective for what it does.

Jim

2592

General Software Discussion / Re: Download Demons...

« on: December 27, 2007, 04:57 PM »

I generally don't use a download manager. I did use FDM and I remember that McAfee Site Advisor used to scream about it! But I couldn't find anything sneaky about it.

Can't remember when or why I stopped, but I haven't used one in a while.  I agree that many are plagued with adware and worse. Tradition, I guess!

Jim

2593

Screenshot Captor / Re: Way More Than Your Average Screen Capture Tool!

« on: December 27, 2007, 03:10 AM »

I have nerver used snagit, I have two question,
1. Does it support recording the mouse movements and keystrokes, or just capture the screen like "Print Screen"?
2. Does it support Windows Vista or Mac ?

Thanks!

-sabrina07080236 (December 27, 2007, 02:00 AM)

1) Yes.

2) Vista, yes. Mac - no, I don't believe so.

Take a look:  http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp

Jim

2594

Screenshot Captor / Re: Way More Than Your Average Screen Capture Tool!

« on: December 26, 2007, 11:05 PM »

  I think ScreenShotCaptor (SSC) was the first program that I bought "contributed to?" on this website.  I went through many screenshot programs, but what one would do the others wouldn't.  I actually had three different captor programs on my computer just to cover everything I needed.  SSC basically has all the bells and whistles the others lacked in one package and just blew the competition away.  It's nice to have just one captor installed on my computer, I don't have to remember which one did what I needed at the time.   

-Tinman57 (December 26, 2007, 10:54 PM)

To be completely honest I still have SnagIt installed. After all I did pay for that one!

SnagIt has occasional issues where it won't start, and I have to go and delete it from the Data Execution Prevention exclusion list in WinXP Pro SP2, and then re-list on there. PITA!  But then again, Screenshot Captor simply will not capture some screens for me, and in those instances I have to use SnagIt. Scrolling windows, for example.  With Screenshot Captor my entire screen starts blinking rapidly and there's nothing I can do short of rebooting. If I wait it out until Screenshot Captor eventually completes the capture, the pic is not even readable. So SnagIt gets the job of doing scrolling windows.

That problem may be a symptom of problems with my graphics card. (I get a $600+ card in this custom-built POS that cost me more than any other PC I've owned, and I've been battling problems with the card - and Nvidia - ever since!!)

Jim

2595

General Software Discussion / More on Super Flexible File Synchronizer; Updates Anyone?

« on: December 26, 2007, 05:17 PM »

I decided to check for updates to see if SFFS had done anything lately.  A couple of months ago the developer posted here in response to a thread where I was complaining quite loudly about the surprising difficulties with trying to schedule syncs with SFFS.  At the time he mentioned scheduling would be much easier in version 4 and he promised a free upgrade to anyone reading that post if they emailed him and requested it.  He didn't mention when version 4 was expected to hit the street, though.

From the SFFS interface I could not find any way to check for updates.  No link for that under the Help menu as most programs do and nothing in Options to auto-check for updates.

So I visited the SFFS website to look there manually.  I did find that something has been updated in SFFS, but not exactly what.  My current version, 3.67, is the last dated release shown on the Version History page, but several more releases are also shown there - none with dates, though. I copied them from that page and they are listed below:
SFFS Version History

v3.75b build 714
- fixes minimizing problems on some computers
- scheduler tab sheet now supports Unicode better

 v3.75a build 713
- use + prefix in "Execute After" script to have it run only upon complete success
- fixes a problem where sometimes FTP transfers where not resumed when using "Auto Resume"
- fixes some service scheduler-related delays in the GUI

v3.75 build 712
- fixes a rare Range Check Error that can occur with WebDAV authentication when Basic Authentication is not used.

v3.75 build 710
- FTP retrying optimized
- renaming conflicting files now supported for FTP
- certificates can now be used without password again, (new checkbox on the FTP dialog)
- the Cache Destination option now correctly removes deleted files from the cache.
- fixed word wrapping on large system fonts in Wizard Mode
- the program no longer shows "30 days left for eval." for some registered customers
- FTP can now go over port 80 again

v3.73a
- new setting: Waiting time countdown before shutdown (on Options tab sheet)
- fixed Last Sucess not being updated

v3.73
- new setting: FTP Retries on the FTP dialog
- more detailed logging in case of errors when using the "Log Timing" option

v3.72d
- fixes rare AV at the end of processes running in parallel

v3.72c
- fixes emails not being sent from jobs running in parallel

v3.72b
- fixes a WebDAV compatibility issue

v3.72a
- fixes a bug when using a File Age "less than" filter, where the interval would be reduced by 1 second each time the profile is run (1 minute after 60 runs)

v3.72
- improved WebDAV compatibility and speed

v3.71a
- fixes an occasional WebDAV problem

v3.71
- Amazon S3 uploads are now automatically verified using their MD5 checksum

v3.70
- copying across networks such as VPNs now tolerates interruptions and will resme transfers appropriately
- Partial File Updating optimized
- setting timestamps via WebDAV now supports three different server types which can be selected on the Internet Protocols dialog (FTP ETC.)
- Execute before/after command lines can be set to only run on specific weekdays
- a Proxy can now be specified for Amazon S3
- the diff tool can now be invoked when one side is FTP
- program now works correctly if both Partial File Updating and Auto-Resume is selected with SSH uploads

(I tried using the forum "Table" feature for the above - yuck!)

Anyway, has anyone managed to receive/install the above updates?  How do you check for SFFS updates?  Or is it just like I did - look at the site and see if anything newer is there?

BTW, I don't see any way to download updates - only the regular trial version, and I have no idea whether or not that is the latest build.

(This is almost as bad a the Chameleon Startup Manager update circus - another poor implementation IMO.   The more I see.....)

Thanks.

Jim

2596

General Software Discussion / Re: Do you use a light or a dark background in your editor for programming?

« on: December 26, 2007, 04:39 PM »

I definitely prefer black text on a white background, or at least something similar - very dark on very light!

I do think the dark backgrounds look really nice, but I just find that over a period of time - especially if I am working on something for hours on end - the light background with dark text is easier on my eyes.

That said, for some reason, way back in my WordPerfect 5.1 days, their standard white text on a medium blue background was kind of easy on my eyes also.  Supposedly, IIRC at that time, Corel had researched the eyestrain caused by looking at a monitor all day long and determined that the white on blue was the best.  However I never saw anything to back that up, so it may have been hogwash!

Of course the monitors we were staring at back then were a lot tougher in general to look at for long periods. I don't think they had the refresh rate that they do today.

Jim

2597

Living Room / Mind Manager - Worth an Upgrade?

« on: December 26, 2007, 02:09 PM »

I have has the last few versions of Mind Manager from Mindjet.  I currently have Mind Manager Pro 6.  When MM Pro 7 was released I did not upgrade for the first time in a few years, mainly because there did not appear to be much in the way of added or improved features.  Instead it looked like the upgrade was mostly dedicated to Vista compatibility and revising the UI to the MS Office "Ribbon" style - as I understand it all Microsoft Logo Certified developers were required to do that in order to maintain their certification.  (Though I am not sure that's entirely true).

Two weeks before Christmas I received another upgrade offer from Mindjet - upgrade to Mind Manager Pro 7 for $129.00, which is $45 off the regular upgrade price.  At first I summarily dismissed the offer for the same reasons I did so when it was released in September - I don't use Vista nor Office 2007 (I use XP Pro and Office 2003) and I am not aware of any particular killer features added to this version.  I never installed the trial of MM Pro 7 because I had read of other users having difficulty getting MM Pro 6 to reinstall after removing the trial version.  So I am basing my opinion on other users' input on their forum and elsewhere.

However before I go ahead and ignore the offer altogether - it is good through 12/31/2007 and the next version shouldn't be available until next fall - I thought I would ask here at Donation Coder to see if anyone is using MM Pro 7 and, if so, to ask how you like it.  Is it worth the cost of upgrading?  Is the Ribbon interface very intrusive?  (Looks like it takes up about 15 to 20% more space which is now map space)  Is your opinion that I should just pass on this one and look to the next version?  I respect the opinions of my fellow users here more than any others I would find on the web.

I use Mind Manager for purely personal reasons, and I use it somewhat sparingly.  It is definitely not an "everyday, must be open on my desktop" program for me!

Thanks for any input!

Jim

2598

Living Room / Re: What's the best registry cleaner? Ask Leo says: none

« on: December 26, 2007, 12:28 AM »

I use jv16 Powertools 2007 for registry cleaning. I don't use it in any kind of Automatic Mode; instead I monitor each cleaning and only select those keys which I recognize as being associated with items I feel comfortable with.  It is configured to create a backup of all affected keys, plus I backup the entire registry weekly.

There are many cases I have seen where certain applications I once had installed still have a lot of keys that are no longer beneficial.

Also, Acronis images help me feel a bit safer.

Jim

2599

General Software Discussion / Re: How do you archive your Email or MBox2CHM?

« on: December 25, 2007, 02:48 PM »

Hi Dan. I have about 15,000 messages in T-Bird, and it's not slow.

But I didn't claim it was; crono did at the top of the page. Maybe he/she has a lot more?

Jim

2600

General Software Discussion / Re: 11 Top New Web Apps of 2007 - from lifehack.org

« on: December 25, 2007, 12:54 PM »

The one thing I hate about LifeHacker is how their apparent direct links actually link to Lifehacker itself. In this article, for example, their "links" to these apps only link to the png files! IDIOTS. I agree with housetier on the overwhelming choice of flash apps. Seems the author, Dustin Wax, likes eye candy more than function. I see that a lot these days. With pretty, it often brings bloat, and the last thing I need on my computer is another slow app, no matter its location.

-zridling (December 24, 2007, 11:37 PM)

I couldn't agree more!  Drives me even crazier than usual!!

Jim