Messages

51

General Software Discussion / Re: Xenon Portable File Manager - Portable Associations!

« on: January 21, 2009, 01:24 PM »

I use XYPlorer sometimes, and I never noticed it had support for portable associations. Thanks!

Xenon is pretty barebones as a file manager; its two virtues are, first, the portable file associations, and, second, the fact it is so simple and basic - if you just want the simplest possible interface to do very basic file management tasks, it might work for you. If you want flexibility or power...

52

General Software Discussion / Xenon Portable File Manager - Portable Associations!

« on: January 18, 2009, 09:25 PM »

I just discovered, over at Portable Apps, an interesting new tool they haven't had on offer before. It is known as Xenon Portable File Manager, and it allows you to set file associations, so when you click on a file in Xenon, it opens with the associated program. Even with the limitation (which seems unavoidable, really: any portable associations would have to be limited to the app they were set in) it looks like a great tool. It is a pretty barebones file manager, but for portable use it looks more than good enough. And it has the one feature I've wanted ever since I first put files on a stick.

As an added bonus, if you go to the developer's site, http://www.mi3soft.info/?page=software.portable, they also offer IcoFX - which, for anyone who doesn't know it, is a great free icon editor - in a portable wrapper. I'm off to load up my USB stick with a few more apps. Since prices are falling, it may be time to pick up a few larger capacity sticks, although 2 GB will hold a lot more than you'd expect (all my most essential apps, vital information, and manuscripts will fit on 2 GB with room to spare).

53

Developer's Corner / Re: "Folder Shortcuts" in Windows

« on: January 16, 2009, 05:46 PM »

Thanks, that's what I wondered about. If I've learned nothing else over the years, I've learned to be cautious. 

54

Developer's Corner / Re: How-To: Override Inline Styles from the Stylesheet

« on: January 16, 2009, 05:24 PM »

Hey, thanks! That looks pretty useful. Something I've wanted to figure out how to do for a long time, at least. 

55

Developer's Corner / Re: Tool to convert HTML pages website into a secure EXE

« on: January 16, 2009, 05:21 PM »

Well you aren't going to find your book on some download or torrent site with 1000's of people downloading it every day. It's just not practical for book pirates to create a new account on their machine and install a new copy of Reader every time they want to grab another pirated book to read.
[....]
And if I remember correctly, there may also be a limit on the number of machines that an email address can be used on with the Reader software, and that after I think 5 uses, you can't use it any more. This would limit the original purchaser to 5 machines, pda's, or whatever, over the course of their lifetime, with the need to repurchase all of their books if they exceeded that. (not too good for the consumer that formats his machine and reinstalls every 6 months!)
[....]
And here's a bit of food for thought when it comes to DRM and sharing between family & friends:

I could go to a book store and buy a paperback or hardcover book dirt cheap off the clearance table, take it home, read it, and then loan it to a friend who reads it and returns it to me. And I can keep loaning it out until every friend & family member I have has read it.

I can then take that book and sell it on EBay (possibly for more than I paid for it, and thereby making a profit on it) and the buyer of the book can do the same, loaning it to all his friends & family, and then either sell it like I did or donate the book to a library where 1000's more people get to borrow and read it...all without the original author, publisher, or distributor receiving any additional compensation beyond the original discounted purchase price I paid when I bought the book at the book store...AND THAT IS LEGAL.

What I don't understand as a consumer is how anyone can possibly think it's fair to stop me from doing the same with a digital product I have purchased. Why can I not give it away after I have read it or listened to it, like I can with a physical copy? Why are my rights to pass it on when I am finished, or loan it out, or sell it, or donate it to a library, being trampled upon? Why has there not been a way for people to be able to do this, built into any existing DRM scheme yet?

I don't think I would be so against DRM if it were possible for me to do the same with a digital product as I can with the physical version of the same product. And it is for this reason why I will not buy an ebook or an MP3, rather than a physical book or CD. I would be paying the same money but getting less rights, as a consumer.

It's not just the authors, artists, publishers, and distributors that have rights. Consumers do too. DRM only thinks about and addresses the rights of the first group and does not even consider the rights of the second, at all.

-app103 (January 16, 2009, 11:02 AM)

Although I'm a writer, I did use the word "unreasonable" to describe many of the existing schemes, in the sense that they were unreasonable to the consumer.

Example: Five installs? I once went through that many just to convince tech support it was their hardware and not my software causing problems. I prefer a solution that works for both parties. I don't want to get ripped off, and I don't want to be forced to rip off my audience in an effort not to be ripped off. That was really my point: any of the existing solutions are either too weak, or too strong. One side or the other suffers.

As for your other points, true, a little sharing with friends isn't a huge problem - but the real point, which I didn't think I needed to spell out, is that if ordinary people can get around a scheme in order to share once with a friend, pirates will have little trouble figuring out ways to make copies to share with millions.

One of my online posts was the victim of a scraper, thanks to my use of a certain keyword. If I'd discovered someone reposted it on their personal blog, I wouldn't have a huge issue with it - but a scraper? Scrapers are just the pirates of web content, and I don't like pirates at all. But, see, that's why DRM can never work. If it is weak enough to allow enough loopholes you could share with a friend, the pirates will leap through those loopholes and bore them wide open. If it is closed up so tight you can't share at all, it isn't fair to you. (Even if you can't copy or print, I've seen software that lets you run OCR from a bitmap - in other words, a screen shot - and who is more likely to have that type of software, and misuse it, than a pirate?)

Consumers and people who create content need to work out a completely new model, because making the old model work with DRM will screw over one side or the other.

56

General Software Discussion / Re: Fast Dial Warning for FF

« on: January 16, 2009, 05:02 PM »

I agree the developer is at fault, and never should have done what he did without warning. If someone tells me first that I have to accept ads / spam, I may or may not decide it's worth it. If they don't warn me first, I'll never trust them again.

What I find foolish is the folks blaming Mozilla. How are they supposed to check every little update that comes along? I think some of the responsibility lies with the users. I mean, even when developers act in good faith, sometimes they make changes you aren't happy with. If you just blindly allow everything to be updated automatically, you're taking some risk you'll be unhappy with the result. In this case, the developer was also at fault, no question. But users need to pay attention to what is happening on their systems (unless they want to be one of those guys who just accepts whatever comes up on their screen - and then I think they'll be getting some nasty surprises pretty quickly).

I mean, malware authors all deserve a good kick in the head, and nothing absolves them of the responsibility for spreading their crap. But, hate it or not, it does exist. If you just press "Yes" whenever a box pops up on your screen, or you set your system to automatically accept whatever updates are pushed at it, sooner or later, you're going to wind up with junk on your hard drive you never put there and don't want there.

57

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com - Complaints, Problems, and Rooms for Improvement

« on: January 16, 2009, 04:50 PM »

Okay, I'm going to mention a few thoughts I've had, about DC and about forums in general, but I do want to first say that these are more ideas for improvement, rather than real complaints.

First, the whole forum format is great for discussions - but it isn't the ideal way to present the type of information you want to be able to reference. I'm more inclined to use search, and to poke through a whole thread to pick out info, than most people I know (I've scrolled through rolls of microfilm just to find the one entry I needed, after all), but I still find it a time-consuming way to access information. This isn't just the case with DC: any forum I'm on which includes informative posts tends to bury a lot of great information. If you don't search on just the right term, you miss it. When you do find it, if you do, you have to scroll through a lot of comments in the thread that don't add much to the discussion just to see the relevant bits. What am I getting at? Something like a Wiki (not necessarily editable by anyone, btw, I'm speaking of format here) is much easier to navigate and extract information from. The TOS could be revised to allow reposting selected material there so copyright need not be an issue.

Yes, I do know it is a lot of work. No, I'm not sure it would be worth the effort. It is just an idea that's been on my mind for a long time, and I think it is at least worth discussion. For what it's worth, the more accessible a reference that was available, the more visitors would be pulled in and exposed to the DC model of software, which I personally think is a great idea. Would it increase traffic enough to justify the effort? Your guess is as good as mine. I'm just tossing ideas out for discussion, as I gather that is Mouser's idea.

My other point is this: I think the more that can be done to draw visitors, to express the ideas behind DC, and to explain them in ways anyone can grasp, the better. Yes, only efforts that yield enough result are worth it, but the goal is important, so I think a discussion specifically of how to win over more visitors is a good one. The basic model is sound; I'm not questioning that. What I'm wondering is, could more be done to spread awareness of, and appreciation for, that model? Whatever your opinion of them, there are a lot of people who won't donate until they figure out what's in it for them (and, yes, there are real benefits) and need to have that spelled out for them.

58

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Anyone Else "Lose" LBC After Monitor Powers Down?

« on: January 16, 2009, 04:29 PM »

Well, LBC and Firefox (v 3.0.5) don't play very nicely together. LBC is set to stay on top, autohidden, and with everything else I've run so far, the thin line is visible to the left of the screen and I can access it. With Firefox maximized, I can't - some of the time - but, usually, all I need to do is minimise it. Then I can get at LBC from the Desktop or whatever other program happens to be on top. I haven't noticed any other programs "blocking" the On Top feature so far. Just a guess, but since it is an 'on and off' sort of glitch, I wonder if that part has to do with some sort of code in the web pages I visit, or something similar. I'll have to try to notice what pages initiate the problem, if there is any correlation there.

The other part, the one I posted about, has happened several times - always after the screen has powered off and been brought "back to life". Then, I can't find LBC at all, no matter what windows I minimise, and moving the mouse to the left side of the screen won't make it appear. Since it seems to correlate with the screen power / display in some way, I suspect that is just my system being ornery. I was mostly hoping someone else had noticed a problem on their own system and figured out a workaround. Since it is a desktop and not running on battery power, I suppose I could just change the power saving settings to keep the screen from shutting down - I'm holding off on that so I can observe and troubleshoot at the moment. But if anyone does know what's happening and has an idea for a fix, that would be cool.

Just in case any of those minutiae gives you a clue to the issues I gather you're having with the On Top feature. (Which usually seems to work fine for me, btw.)

59

Developer's Corner / Re: "Folder Shortcuts" in Windows

« on: January 16, 2009, 04:15 PM »

No, actually, I didn't even know about HardLinks until I just read your message. Thanks! They look useful.

No; I know how I could automate the shortcuts I'm talking about (explain in a moment): I was just wondering, since it is a powerful feature, if it was one of those things that won't "take well" to automation. (I've had things that work fine manually, but when you speed the process up by using a macro, something seems to go wrong. Considering the shortcuts I'm talking about have the potential to wipe out an entire folder...)

You create the Folder Shortcuts I'm talking about by creating a shortcut to the folder you want to link to, named Target.lnk, then you have to create a Desktop.ini file with special settings; then you drop Target.lnk and Desktop.ini in another folder, with the name you want to give the link. You set both of those file's attributes to Hidden and System, then close the folder, and when you open it again, it will be the equivalent of the target folder. AFAIK, you have to create these in your Desktop folder, although I believe you can move them. I haven't tried. That was one of the things I was going to play around with... Sorry if I've got the wrong name; the only one I've ever come across for them is Folder Shortcuts.

60

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Anyone Else "Lose" LBC After Monitor Powers Down?

« on: January 15, 2009, 09:38 PM »

I'm using v. 1.85.01 - as far as I know, the latest. Sorry I didn't make myself clear: I do sometimes need to minimise another window, but I minimised Firefox, had the Desktop in sight, and still no sign of LBC. It was only after I closed FF that it reappeared, but FF was minimised before that.

I can't be sure it is my system, of course, but since I have other weird glitches (for example, SP3 for XP won't install - whenever I try, it just hangs in the middle of the process and gobbles 100% of the CPU cycles for as many hours as I let it run - same thing for the NET framework updates) it isn't hard to imagine. This install of Windows has been on here since early 2005, so it is pretty messed up by now. I suppose I should just bite the bullet and reinstall, but I have things I'd like to get done first, if my system lets me.

61

LaunchBar Commander / Anyone Else "Lose" LBC After Monitor Powers Down?

« on: January 15, 2009, 08:48 PM »

I just came back to my computer after a late dinner, and noticed a weird problem with LBC. It is there (I get the "pop" sound when I move the mouse to that side of the screen), but I can't see it / access it. I have it set to AutoHide, but usually that seems to work fine. This has happened before, but I just figured out, tonight, what the common factor was. Every time, it is when my monitor has powered down then powered back up - LBC seems to get 'lost' in this process somehow.

I suspect it is my video driver, or something similar, causing this, but wonder if anyone else has noticed behaviour like this, or figured out a fix, short of rebooting. I'm running a Dell Dimension 4700 with XP Pro, SP2 (got a weird problem keeping me from installing SP3 or any of the NET framework updates - something I really need to deal with one of these days), and use a flat panel monitor with a RADEON X300.

Edited to Add: Just posted this, shut Firefox down so I could reboot - and LBC reappeared at the side of the screen, just that thin little line that tells me it's there. I've really got to sort my system out enough that I can wipe the HDD and start over - without installing anything I don't need. I get the feeling half my problems are too many programs on here... (I've got roughly 200 installed. And 1800 fonts. Yes, I know. I'm lucky the thing's running at all.)

62

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Using CLSIDs in Launch Bar Commander

« on: January 15, 2009, 08:39 PM »

Hey, thanks! I was trying to figure out how to run the Printers folder. (I feel pretty stupid for not thinking of the shell command, though. I used to know about that, but I haven't used it in so long...)

63

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Using CLSIDs in Launch Bar Commander

« on: January 15, 2009, 05:35 PM »

Thanks, I bookmarked that. I'll have to play around a bit, just to see what I can do.

64

General Software Discussion / COMPLIMENT: Liquid Story Binder XE - Black Obelisk Software

« on: January 15, 2009, 12:25 PM »

I just wanted to point out, for anyone who is interested in writing, the best software on the market. LSB (Liquid Story Binder XE) is flexible enough to be useful no matter what process you use for writing, powerful, includes most if not all the tools you'll need as a writer, and works well. On the rare occasions when something doesn't work, the owner / developer sorts it out quickly as soon as a user reports it. The tech support / bug fix response time is more than just excellent - it is actually better than anything I ever imagined from any company.

Yes, my post probably sounds like an ad. I just don't know how to do LSB justice any other way. There are other software companies I'm happy with, and many more I'm at least not actively hostile towards. But of them all, LSB stands out as the most amazing company ever. If I'd had any idea how great the service was, I'd have expected to pay at least ten times what I did. I have pretty high standards: I was a WordPerfect user back when WP was its own company, and offered unlimited technical support. If any of you remember that, I doubt you've ever had an experience as good since WP was bought out and the policies changed. Well, LSB has support better than that standard, something I never even imagined was possible until I experienced it. (Yes, it's based on a Yahoo Group, which is no doubt cheaper, but all I care about - all any user really needs to care about - are the results. Which are fantastic.)

Sure, if you're only writing something short, there are simpler tools that may be enough for you, but if you want to tackle a novel, and you're using anything else, you're doing yourself a disservice.

65

Living Room / Re: eBay USB Thumb Drive Buyers: Beware

« on: January 15, 2009, 12:03 PM »

My rule of thumb on any site is this: unless I know enough about the seller to be sure of their honesty, or unless I know of a reason why the price ought to be low, any price that looks too low to pass up is exactly the offer I want to pass up.

66

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Using CLSIDs in Launch Bar Commander

« on: January 15, 2009, 12:00 PM »

Thanks. At least I know I'm not missing anything obvious. Yes, it would be nice, I certainly wouldn't mind if you do get it figured out, but it isn't a huge issue. It was just wondering if the program required some slight little tweak (I had an app once that would only run if you added the switches /foo /bar to the command line) to make it work that was driving me crazy.

67

Developer's Corner / Re: Tool to convert HTML pages website into a secure EXE

« on: January 15, 2009, 11:56 AM »

ReaderWorks can be used to convert html to .lit, and .lit can be protected and tied to a single user. MS Reader is used to view the books and it is available in both a free desktop reader for Windows and for PocketPC. When installing the reader software, you are asked for your Windows Live ID (email address). You are not allowed to change the email address in the software, once you have entered it. All DRM protected files that you try to open in the reader MUST be registered to THAT email address or it will fail to open.

-app103 (January 15, 2009, 05:13 AM)

If I understand this correctly, I don't see how there is much protection in this scheme. Just download a new version of the free Reader software, install it in a new user profile (if you even have to do that), and set it up with a new e-mail address. Use your friend's address - the one who shares his files with you. Not legal, not honest, but there's nothing to stop someone from doing it, is there? All the schemes I've seen are either: trivial to get around, or so hideous for even a legitimate user to make use of they are unreasonable. As a writer, I'd love to see a solution for e-books that worked well, but I haven't found one yet.

68

LaunchBar Commander / Re: Using CLSIDs in Launch Bar Commander

« on: January 15, 2009, 11:45 AM »

create a folder somewhere
make windows shortcuts in that folder that point to all the control panel special objects
make a node in LBC that shows the contents of this folder

-mouser (January 15, 2009, 11:34 AM)

Yes, I can do that, but since it requires me to add shortcuts manually if any apps are added to the control panel, I was just wondering if I'm missing some obvious bit of syntax that would let me use the CLSID in LBC directly. As I say, it isn't a huge issue if I can't: I just hate to think it might be possible if I only tweaked the syntax I tried slightly.

69

Living Room / Re: The Bailout Game

« on: January 15, 2009, 11:33 AM »

As a game, it's funny. In real life...

It seems that in the finance industry, you get rewarded for failure just as much as you get rewarded for success. When I go to a mechanic, I expect them to fix my car. If I took a perfectly good car in, and the engine was ruined within three miles after I left because they thought they'd pick up a little extra cash charging me for the time they spent doing random crap in there, I wouldn't pay them a cent - I'd sue their butts off.

I don't think there are any companies out there hiring programmers who can't write a working line of code. Well, only the big ones. So why should anyone accept it when some jerk in a suit essentially says "I got greedy, I screwed up - now you've got to pay to get me out of this mess." If I were President, I'd give them two choices. One, they figure out how to solve the mess themselves, without taxpayer help. Two, they prove they made such a huge mess it really will drag down the country - then they're guilty of treason for endangering the country. Harsh? Hey, I'm not the one who decided to hold a whole country full of people hostage unless I got a truckload of cash.

I guess all we can do is laugh about it, since the folks we elected don't seem to care. Still, the game wouldn't be realistic unless it had you wringing blood from a bunch of ordinary taxpayers to fund all those nice private jets so the "elite" wouldn't have to mingle with us peasants. So the whole thing is both ridiculous and the cold, hard truth, all at once. The best summary I've seen was the Halloween cartoon of a girl walking around inside a toilet, saying "I'm going as seven hundred billion dollars." Maybe that ought to be the point of the game; see how quickly you can flush a boatload of cash. But then you've still got to squeeze the folks who don't have it so you can give more to the folks who already screwed up and lost it, or it won't be realistic, either. Oh, hell, I don't think there's a way to make a game out of this that is at all realistic. The most absurd games have rules that make more sense than what's happening right now.

70

LaunchBar Commander / Using CLSIDs in Launch Bar Commander

« on: January 15, 2009, 11:20 AM »

I wanted to set LBC up to open a few of the "special objects"; Control Panel (all my apps, not just the ones in the menu), Recycle Bin, My Computer, etc. So I had the idea of using the CLSIDs, as you can when creating a folder which you name, add a dot, then put in the CLSID in brackets. So I've tried adding the CLSID as a command, a folder, etc. and nothing works. So far, the best option I've found is to set up a folder somewhere else (I have a "hidden" spot I park links in anyway, for purposes just like this), create a shortcut to it, and add the shortcut to LBC as a command. This works fine, as far as it goes; it opens a special Explorer window with all the icons (I assume Recycle Bin will just open the Recycle Bin, but I haven't tried that out yet).

I was hoping to be able to set those objects up as a menu; obviously, I can do this manually by creating a menu and adding each object. The trouble is, then if my system changes (some program installs a new app in Control Panel or whatever) I'll have to add it manually. Yes, I can live with this: I'm not asking for the feature to be added if it doesn't exist. I suspect it would be far too much work for too little result. I am just tormented by the idea I'm just missing some simple trick of syntax that would make this work. So if anyone has worked out a way to use CLSIDs with LBC, please share how you do it. If not, I can live with a manual menu. I just hate wondering if I'm just missing what I want to do by leaving out a semi-colon or something. 

71

General Software Discussion / Re: Another 'Lifetime' license bites the dust

« on: January 13, 2009, 08:01 PM »

I think there are several issues here. One is the right of the developer to choose the license terms they wish to sell their product under. In this, I am with the developer: if they want to sell a simple file manager for a $2,500 per year subscription, I'd be surprised if they have any takers, but that's their right. Consumers can examine the terms, gasp in horror, and move on.

Changing the terms after the fact is a completely different issue. If I'm told I'm buying one thing, and it is suddenly changed to another, then I am bound to become annoyed. (I have seen one instance where the terms were not changed, but where the issue came up, and a lot of users volunteered to give up their lifetime licenses if that would help keep the product viable. I'd do so myself. That is different; if a developer says "I will honour my original terms, but I'm having difficulties and anyone who wishes to donate / buy a new license / whatever may do so" I have no problem with that at all.) If the terms are too confusing, well, it would depend on the exact situation how I felt personally, but I'd expect a lot of confused customers to be put off.

As for expecting things to be free: I, personally, don't expect them to be, but if someone chooses to offer software as freeware, I'm not going to turn them down just so I can buy commercial software, either. I tend to prefer freeware / donationware for several reasons. Most importantly, most of it seems to actually do what it is supposed to. I've paid $90 for software bloated with bells and whistles that wouldn't work right, then downloaded a nifty little tool offered as freeware that did just what I needed with no fuss. The second reason is because I can try it before I decide if it's worth anything. If I decide it is, I can donate to the author - although, if the author has provided the option to use it free of charge, they have no more reason to expect everyone to donate than I have to expect them to offer it free in the first place. My third reason is simply this: money is limited. I can't always afford what I need when I need it. So I can use freeware / donationware, then donate when I have more cash in hand. *

I'm not against donating for good software, not at all. I think the idea of DonationCoder is a great one. And I think more and more people are - slowly - beginning to understand that if you find something great, maybe it is a good idea to encourage that, even if you're not required to pay. And I understand it is tough for developers: unless they get a job with one of the "evil empires" I don't think many of them make much more than writers do. But they need to understand, if they offer the option of getting something free, some people will take it, either because they're greedy or just because they can't afford to do otherwise.

And, here is the important part: if they don't like the overall attitude of the public, they need to take steps to change that attitude. DC is one good idea in that direction. Is it enough? I don't know, but I do know the Internet offers any of us who are unhappy the chance to get a hearing. Get out there and blog, share your ideas, help the public understand why they should consider donating to developers. I'm not saying it's wrong to vent a little on a forum like this one, but if you really don't like the way it is, you've got to put your ideas out there, explain them, defend them, not among the folks who already understand what you're saying, but among the ones who don't. And you've got to find a way to do it that will reach them, not annoy them. The rest of this post is just my opinion, but this point isn't my opinion, it is how things work. No one else is going to make the changes you think they should unless you can first convince them why they should.

* So, for anyone who's on here who's written software I like, if you hear I've written a book, there's your reason to tell all your friends how great it is. If it becomes a best-seller, some of that goodness might just flow your way.

72

Living Room / Re: Seagate's Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing at alrming rate?

« on: January 13, 2009, 07:01 PM »

Now this is not good news..  remember to back up everything people..

-mouser (January 13, 2009, 03:35 PM)

Thank God I'm not using one; the stress would kill me. Yes, I back up. I've also heard of a few folks who have had two drives fail within a week of each other. I know that's long odds, but any time I don't have two drives working, I panic. Optical media won't last long enough to rely on (I've had some discs fail in a month or less), flash drive prices are too high still to let me back up all my data that way, and online storage is not terribly reliable (I've seen a whitepaper on all the factors affecting data preservation in that type of setting, some of which include variables unknown even to the companies providing the storage) and costs too much, and a failing hard drive is one of my nightmares.

As for backing up, good advice, I agree, and one far too few folks take seriously. I suppose if your data doesn't mean much to you, you can afford to roll the dice. For anyone with irreplaceable work in digital form, making backups ought to be such a habit you don't even think about it - you just do it. At least, that's my opinion. Oh, I'll feel a little sympathy for someone who just lost all their irreplaceable files, especially in a case like this one, but when they say "I just didn't have time to back things up" I wonder just what they were doing for the past few months or years that wouldn't let them at least take ten minutes to set up and schedule a backup job. (I do mine more manually, just so I can be sure things go as they should.) It's a habit that's saved me more than once.

73

Living Room / Re: make family tree in Visio - manually or automated via db?

« on: January 13, 2009, 06:48 PM »

That said, the Pedigree chart has the same drawback that most examples of such chart/tree outputs from tools like these that I've seen: it is too spaced. I want to cram as much as possible of the tree onto one sheet of paper. In my manual, Visio made tree I could squeeze in 11 generations on one sheet of paper (I've trimmed away a lot of people on the "sides" to make that fit).

So, in the end I will probably BOTH keep that manual tree manually updated AND migrate the data into some real genealogy software database. The manual "main tree" won't have so many details anyway and so it will not need updating so often. Just name and date of birth/death/marriage and lines to mark relations. Please keep the discussion on pros and cons of various software solutions flowing!

-Nod5 (January 13, 2009, 02:15 PM)

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to do, so I can't say for certain this will work - but The Master Genealogist allows you to choose which details to print on a chart - and the charting tool allows you to manually tweak the output before you print it. I never tried GenBox, but I've heard it has similar features. I do suggest, before you shell out for a particular title, that you look over the sites, check screenshots, poke around the user forums, and ask questions. As far as PAF, since it's free, you can download it, put just a couple of names in, and play around to see what you think of it. But there is at least a chance you can do everything you want in one program.

74

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for random map generator.

« on: January 11, 2009, 11:00 PM »

Yes, I know this is a software forum, and you asked about software, but... I'm a writer. And software is a great tool if you have the right stuff and know how to use it, but if you've never used it you're likely to lose the momentum to go ahead and write the story. Google "worldbuilding" and you'll find some great tips on creating your own random map by doodling. Holly Lisle's written some good stuff, although I forget how much is in her free tips and how much in one of her e-books. (I'm an affiliate, but I'm not posting my link, so I've got nothing to gain - the disclaimer is just to get it all out in the open.) Orson Scott Card wrote something cool about mapmaking (in re: a book which mentioned "Hart's Hope" if you want to Google that phrase - I'm not sure if it was the title of the book, though), too, but I don't know if that's online. But there are other tips - and you don't need to be good at drawing. The key is to be random, and use that very randomness as inspiration.

Most of the writers I know who use software use Campaign Cartographer - if they can afford it - it is highly recommended. The ones who can't afford it use AutoRealm - freeware, but the learning curve is awfully steep, the documentation awful, and it won't randomly generate maps as far as I know. Most of the stuff you're looking at, for on-screen games, is not scaled well, and it will actually lead you to make mistakes in your story. You'll misjudge distances / travel times, etc. And there is another problem with randomly generated maps: they won't follow the rules of weather, etc. you need to make your story plausible. Google "worldbuilding" and "geography" and you'll get an idea what I mean. Random maps stick tundra next to desert half the time... Either way, I hope you manage to write your story, and good luck!

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Living Room / Re: make family tree in Visio - manually or automated via db?

« on: January 11, 2009, 10:47 PM »

I just spotted this thread. As a former professional genealogist, I have to make several points here. First, you will nearly always regret it if you fail to use software designed for genealogy to save a family tree. There are programs that print nice charts, there are programs that do a lot of neat stuff. Mostly commercial, but worth it. When you have to change something, you'll regret it if you've set up your own kludgy solution. You might as well try to maintain a 10,000 record plus database in a word processor.

It is also very easy to forget to cite your sources. You need to note exactly where each bit of information came from. Why? Three reasons. First, if you don't know where it came from, you can't judge how reliable it really is. Second, when some bit of conflicting information comes up, and you aren't sure if you copied a date wrong, or whatever, you - or someone else later - is sure to want to be able to find whatever you did, and they'll curse you if they have to hunt all over for it. Third, when you - or someone else later - suspects that you didn't notice all the clues, and there might be the answer to that question you've never been able to answer - they're going to want to find the source you used. If you are enough of a novice at genealogy to be using anything other than a genealogy program - you did miss clues. (No insult intended: this is like saying, if you're still using Dreamweaver to design a web site, you're not going to teach HTML to a guy who uses Notepad++ for his site.)

Finally: GEDCOM. This is not clearly understood. There is a standard for data exchange, but it is flawed. Very flawed. No program can import all data from another program without messing some things up. Some programs can't import their own exported data without messing things up. I know. I've tested them... Find a program you will be happy using - take the time to do your research. You really don't want to have to migrate all that data - even with GEDCOM, you're looking at weeks of manually fixing all the little errors in the new file. My personal favourite is The Master Genealogist (TMG). It is slightly pricey, but highly customisable. Some don't like it due to a steep learning curve, but I think folks on DC can handle it. Then again, if your preferences run differently, I've heard good things about GenBox. Stay away from the 'consumer' titles - they are all junk. Just a few years ago, I had at least six genealogy programs on my machine at once, in case a client used this or that format, and tested them all. There was another fairly good option at one time, but it is no longer available.