Topics

201

Found Deals and Discounts / UK: cheap(?) Linksys routers etc. from Morgan

« on: August 25, 2006, 07:54 AM »

Just in case anyone in the UK is looking for a Linksys router, and doesn't see the Morgan flyer:

Morgan's deals on  Linksys

Linksys Wireless-G ADSL Gateway
[£24.99 ex VAT][£29.36 inc VAT]

Linksys EtherFast 10/100 5-Port Hub
[£9.99 ex VAT][£11.74 inc VAT]
 
Linksys ADSL2 Modem, USB/Ethernet
[£14.99 ex VAT][£17.61 inc VAT]

Linkys Wireless A+G Broadband Router
[£24.99 ex VAT][£29.36 inc VAT]
   
Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router
[£19.99 ex VAT][£23.49 inc VAT]

Linksys Wireless-G Access Point
[£19.99 ex VAT][£23.49 inc VAT]
   
Linksys Wireless-G ADSL Modem Router
[£29.99 ex VAT][£35.24 inc VAT]

They also have USB and PCMCIA WiFi Adaptors, but only 802.11b.

202

General Software Discussion / List fonts for a window?

« on: August 18, 2006, 08:54 AM »

I've seen various tools that list the fonts on a system, but are there any that will list the fonts in use in a particular window?

The context is using Kleptomania to "scrape" text out of certain programs.  In certain cases, it routinely confuses the digit "1" with lower-case "l" (letter eL).

Thanks...

203

Living Room / USB sticks - do you need a famous name?

« on: August 18, 2006, 08:50 AM »

When you buy a USB stick / key / thumb drive, do you need a famous name, or are cheap generic no-name clones perfectly adequate?

I bent my Buffalo one - it still works, but I'm worried that one day the connectors might fail to connect.  Someone at work has a no-name he says works fine, even though it's been through the washing machine twice   

Thanks...

204

Site/Forum Features / One of our posts is missing

« on: August 07, 2006, 08:35 AM »

I remembered an illuminating post by the magisterial CarolHaynes on how to cancel subscriptions from companies that make cancellation excessively difficult.  I didn't seem to have a local copy, so I went looking for it using DC's search feature.  I couldn't find it, despite a fairly determined attempt.  CarolHaynes remembers the message herself but also couldn't find it, and  points out that she thinks SMF has been occasionally losing messages.  Obviously searching wouldn't turn up a message that was no longer in existence.

So...  has anyone else seen this problem?  The search facility may not be very good, but it should have turned up something.  Has anyone else found that posts they know they made have quietly disappeared?

205

Site/Forum Features / Formatted lists

« on: July 11, 2006, 05:04 AM »

Please, how do I make formatted lists?

Is there an area, or a separate how-to file, that lists how to use features like [color=, [url=, etc.?

Thanks...

206

General Software Discussion / Free Web printing toolbar

« on: June 20, 2006, 10:31 AM »

Lexmark Toolbar for Web Printing  http://toolbar.lexmark.com/
Internet Explorer only.

It's free and easy to install.

The Lexmark Toolbar is easy to install and just as easy to use. Here are some more benefits:

    * Automatically scales web pages to print without cutting off text or images
    * Prints relevant text only, eliminating images
    * Print only using the black cartridge (Excludes printers that use the #1 cartridge)
    * Enables easy web photo printing using the included Lexmark Fast Pics software

For independent review, see Jim Lyons Observations  http://jimlyonsobser...-from-webare-we.html
Apparently works with other brands of printer as well as Lexmark.

207

Living Room / PDAs - any use?

« on: May 27, 2006, 04:05 PM »

I keep thinking of trying a PDA, most likely a Palm.  This is because I write lots of things down in a Filofax-type notebook, but then I can't find or manipulate them afterwards.  Are PDAs really useful forn that kind of thing?  I get the impression that quite a few people are starting to abandon them, but that those who do are mostly the GTD crowd who find PDAs don't fit what they want.  Whereas, what I want is mostly a portable text snippets database.  And, PDAs are still well above pocket money, if you decide you don't ge on with them.

Thanks...

208

Site/Forum Features / Show new threads?

« on: May 27, 2006, 02:55 PM »

Is there a way to see just new threads since last visit - not individual posts, just the headings for the threads?

Is there a cheat sheet for the codes used for things like colours, lists, spoilers, etc., all in one place?

Thanks...

209

Best Dialog Extender / FileBox Extender updated to 1.91.01

« on: May 11, 2006, 06:16 AM »

FileBox eXtender™ - keep favorite folders at your fingertips
New! Ver. 1.91.01 is now available for download

Price still $20.

Quoting change log for details since version 1.90.05, as reviewed here at DC;

FileBox eXtender™ Change Log

As you can see, FileBox eXtender receives continual attention as we listen to users' comments and suggestions. You may download the latest version at FileBox eXtender Download Page.

2006.03.06 Version 1.91.02

    * Fixed problem with not saving hot keys for opening Favorites and Recent menus
    * Information panel (visible by default in unregistered copy) about other Hyperionics products added.

2006.02.21 Version 1.91.01

    * Options to add "Always on top" and "Roll up" commands to a window system menu.
    * Added option to sort the "Recent" menu alphabetically
    * New, more logical layout of configuration tabs
    * Updated, hopefully more useful online help
    * "Switch Config" button added to Favorites tab to select a new configuration folder
    * -cf [folder] command line option to use a specific configuration folder
    * Updated to handle Visual Studio 2005 file boxes
    * Some small bug fixes

2005.12.06 Version 1.90.06

    * An issue with Directory Opus 8 "Click switch file box folder feature" corrected.

[edit]
Forgot the URL;  Hyperionics Web site

210

Living Room / WiFi not working - any suggestions, please?

« on: May 03, 2006, 05:32 AM »

I'm in the UK.  I just bought a US Robotics MAXg wireless ADSL gateway plus matching MAXg PC card for my Win98SE laptop, a Thinkpad T22.  The gateway's configuration page says it has an Internet connection, and the right lights are on.  The PC card seems able to see the gateway, and gives a bar graph of link power.  ZoneAlarm Pro knows there's a new network.  Unfortunately, the rest of the computer doesn't believe them.  Browsers don't browse, e-mail clients say they can't connect to the server.  This happens whether I'm using WiFi or a wired connection.

Please, what else do I need to set or change?

211

General Software Discussion / Treepad Lite 3.0 released

« on: April 18, 2006, 05:15 AM »

Those of you who like tree-style hierarchical notekeepers / outliners / PIMs might like to know that Treepad Lite, the small, freeware version of Treepad, has finally been updated.  From their Web site:

New features in version 3.0

April 15, 2006

Options
* Added: a settings screen containing many new options. You can access the settings screen through "menu: View/options" or the new options toolbutton.

Toolbars
* Added: a new button to open the options screen has been added to the file toolbar
* Improved: the 'Follow Hyperlink' icon on the 'navigate' toolbar has been replaced with a better icon.
* Improved: the 'Search article' icon has been replaced with a nicer icon
* Added: the right-click toolbar menu now also contains menu items for the infobars
* Added: the right-click toolbar menu now also appears when right-clicking on the article title bar, just below the article.

Skins
* Added: one can now switch between ten skins to adjust the appearance of TreePad's toolbars. Menu/view/skin or toolbar popup-menu/skin. The following skins are available: classic, silver 1, silver 2, blue sky, blue metallic, chrome, aluminium, vanilla, purple and green. The 'classic' skin corresponds to how the program looked during the last few years.
* Added: a new skins menu has been added to the toolbar popup menu, as well as to the view menu

User-interface
* Added: Windows XP themes support
* Improved: the tab below the article has been replaced with a nicer looking panel displaying the name of the article
* Updated 'About' screen, menu: help/about

Tray icon
* Many new tray icon options, such as: show in tray when minimized, show in tray when active, show in tray and taskbar when minimized, etc. etc. Menu: View/options

Tree
* Added: a tree folder icon for each node. You can hide (and show) this icon using the options screen, menu: view/options

Hmmm...  haven't tried it yet, and a bit ungenerous to criticise a nice little freeware, but those features seem designed to make it look prettier, not make it more powerful...

212

Living Room / Alert for new threads?

« on: April 10, 2006, 04:43 AM »

SMF gives you these options:

Show recent posts  (full text display). Show recent topics.
Show new replies to your posts.

Is there a way to show new threads started since one's last visit?  Also, is there a way to restrict Search to searching for thread titles only, not full text?

213

General Software Discussion / ForKeeps multi-format mail archiver/converter

« on: April 07, 2006, 09:19 AM »

The formerly expensive ForKeeps message archiver has just been updated.  At the same time they have dramatically dropped the price and even made some aspects of the program freeware.

Details here:  http://www.fkeeps.com/fkindex.htm

From their Web site:

Drowning in email and newsgroup or CompuServe Forum messages? Can´t find the information you need? Looking for a way to organize, archive and index your messages so you can quickly find what you are looking for?

Look no more - ForKeeps can do the job for you! Import from a variety of file formats into ForKeeps' relational databases. Browse, maintain and search your messages in one place, regardless of how and with which browser or mail program they were downloaded.

The tools provided within ForKeeps to organize and find the information you need are superior to those you can find in any browser or mail program.


Yes, ForKeeps version 1.0 was released in 1996. No other message archiver has survived on the market for such a long period.

This will be celebrated by completely changing the price structure of ForKeeps:

    *      The Pro Forum & Newsgroup Message Archiver is now freeware!
    *      The price of the full Pro Mail, Forum & Newsgroup Message Archiver is slashed from $124 to $39.
    *      Upgrades are now free. For registered users this means that anyone with any combination of a ForKeeps Mail Message Archiver (Standard or Pro) license can now upgrade to a Pro Mail, Forum & Newsgroup Message Archiver for free. Those with any other (non-Mail) ForKeeps license can upgrade to a Pro Forum & Newsgroup Message Archiver for free.

Version 4.90 contains the full Pro Mail, Forum & Newsgroup Message Archiver.

For non registered users it will be free during a 30 days trial period. After that period the Mail Archiver part will be blocked, unless the program is registered. However, the Pro Forum & Newsgroup Archiver parts are freeware and will always be available.

214

General Software Discussion / What Changed - search for modified files and Registry entries

« on: March 27, 2006, 07:44 AM »

What Changed

What Changed is a simple utility that searches for modified files and registry entries. It is useful for checking program installations. There are two steps for using What Changed: 1) First, take a snapshot of the state of the system   2) Second, run What Changed again to see the differences from the previous snapshot.

What Changed uses the "brute force method" to check files and the registry. Since it is a free tool, no support is provided. Also, as a quick and dirty utility, it might be in need of various user-friendly features, but hey, it's free.

found via TinyApps blog

215

General Software Discussion / E-mail clients review

« on: March 13, 2006, 09:24 AM »

The May 2006 edition of the UK magazine Computer Shopper has a review of e-mail clients.  They scored them as follows:

Microsoft Outlook 2003                  - 2
Microsoft Outlook Express 6            - 2
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5                   - 4
Qualcomm Eudora Sponsored Edition - 3
Opera 8.51                                   - 3
Ritlabs The Bat! 3.65 Home Edition    - 5
Pegasus Mail 4.31                          - 3

So DC are not the only place that favours The Bat! 

216

General Software Discussion / NeoMem organiser update

« on: February 22, 2006, 04:53 AM »

Organiser / organizer freaks may care to know that NeoMem has been updated:

NeoMem
New Version 1.2a released February 20, 2006

New features include:

    * Export entire file or selected object (recursively) to csv (this has limitations, as far as being imported to other programs - Excel has a 32k character per cell limit and Access a 64k character per row limit, which makes this feature less useful than one might hope. But someday there will be an export to XML feature...)
    * Uses an ini file instead of the registry for storing options
    * Added File, Folder, Email, and Website property types, to replace the Hyperlinks type (which is still available, though deprecated)
    * Added Strikethrough format
    * Insert date/time from Edit menu or F5 key
    * Use Alt+, and Alt+. for back/forwards
    * Use Alt+Backspace for undo, in addition to Ctrl+Z
    * Various bug fixes, including the one of printing extra blank pages

More here http://www.neomem.org/neomem.htm

Mouser, what happened to ASRT?  Is there another area for update announcements?

217

Screenshot Captor / Text scraper

« on: January 13, 2006, 05:44 AM »

Mouser,

I just now noticed the Text Scraper function in the announcement of the new beta, haven't tried it yet.  CopyMessageBox at  http://www.thyante.com/  can in most cases save both an image of an error box, and also save its text and send just the text to clipboard, often useful for reporting to authors.  Is that what you mean?

218

Find And Run Robot / What's the correct abbreviation?

« on: December 21, 2005, 03:53 AM »

Mouser,

Is there an official abbreviation of Find&RunRobot's name?  I've seen it written FARR, FaRR, F&RR, f+r, etc.

Just wondering...  the more so if the forum software's search feature is global, in which case using the "wrong" abbreviation might not retrieve what you were looking for.

219

Find And Run Robot / TalkAboutShareware thread

« on: December 08, 2005, 04:10 AM »

Mouser,

TalkAboutShareware has had a thread on FARR and equivalents in the last couple of days, with several sour comments about the licensing, as if some people think they have a moral right to have free software.  You and others might like to put them to rights...

220

General Software Discussion / Recommend directory tracker?

« on: November 23, 2005, 11:17 AM »

Also posted in TalkAboutShareware;

Can anyone recommend a directory tracker, please?  I mean something that will take a snapshot of a directory now, then at a later date, compare it with a new snapshot, and show what's changed.  In particular I want it to give a clean listing of new and/or changed files, which disqualifies 2BrightSparks' FingerPrint utility, good though it is for other purposes.  Really, LFNs are needed too, which disqualifies certain old DOS programs.

I know, I know...  I suppose I could make one by redirecting DIR to a file, then using a DIFF utility...  but does a neat solution already exist?

(Mouser, is this the right area for this kind of question?)

221

Best Dialog Extender / "Rebound" to last file

« on: November 22, 2005, 05:51 AM »

Direct Folders has this feature:

It "rebounds" back to the last item that you opened in a folder. You no longer have to browse through the file listing for a particular document you were working on before - the list scrolls to the last opened file.

That would be important to me.  If, for example, you need to use Acrobat Reader to print a long series of files, you wouldn't lose your place, and either miss files or repeat them.

Will the presence or absence of this feature be noted in the reviews, please?

222

Best E-mail Client / Pegasus Mail?

« on: November 11, 2005, 04:44 AM »

I read the e-mail client review the other day, and was surprised to find that Pegasus Mail wasn't  included.  I'd always thought it was the best known of the freeware clients.  Is that pure chance, nobody happened to have any experience of it? 

223

General Software Discussion / Controlling hotkeys

« on: October 11, 2005, 06:00 AM »

I installed Folder View, found it tended to hang/crash my system, so uninstalled it again.  But it's left a hotkey behind, and it's one I sometimes press in Total Commander's file finder.  Windows then says Can't find the folder, blah-blah.

How do I remove the hotkey when the application itself isn't there any more?  I can't click on the .EXE in Windows Explorer or whatever and (obviously) can't get to the Properties dialog of a file that no longer exists.

224

Living Room / Stupid IE question

« on: September 29, 2005, 11:16 AM »

OK, OK.  Enough banging head against keyboard.

If I'm at a Web page, how do I make IE open up another window so I can go and check something on some completely unrelated Web page?  If there's a link I can right-click, I can do that then edit the address, but if there isn't?

I must be missing something obvious  <grump>

225

General Software Discussion / PCW anti-spyware review

« on: September 23, 2005, 09:14 AM »

The latest (November 2005) edition of the UK magazine Personal Computer World
  http://www.pcw.co.uk  has a review of anti-spyware.  Very briefly:

Two main recommendations -

  Microsoft Antispyware Beta  http://www.microsoft.com/uk
Still a beta, but ore successful than most, and worth the free download

  PCTools Spyware Doctor  http://www.pctools.com
Good performance, informative results, free: PCW said there was little reason to upgrade from the free version (to paid-for support).  You need free registration for real time monitoring.

-----------

  Spybot Search and Destroy  http://www.spybot.info
Free, quick, useful information but doesn't fix everything

-----------

They thought Lavasoft Adaware disappointing for a well-known package.  8 others included in the review.