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Messages - rjbull [ switch to compact view ]

Pages: prev1 ... 121 122 123 124 125 [126] 127next
3126
Best Archive Tool / Re: New Review (09/05/05) - Best Archive Tool
« on: September 06, 2005, 04:48 AM »
Mouser,

Where's the review gone?  I'm getting 404s.

3127
Screenshot Captor / Re: WANTED: Resurces for to use with ScreenCaptor
« on: September 05, 2005, 09:54 AM »
Does everyone know Diamond Willow stick site: lots of freeware links and recommendations, especially for graphics and the Web.

http://www.sticksite.com

You have to page down a long way to get to the freeware link, but there's plenty there when you find it (including DeKnop).

3128
General Software Discussion / Re: Interfaces we love
« on: September 05, 2005, 03:37 AM »
I think it would be a good idea to consider what we think is a good interface and a model for software interface design.
How about Norton Commander?  Or is that not so much a "good" interface" as a "standard" interface?  I can't get my head round Windows Explorer: the two-pane model seems much more intuitive.  The NC interface has carried through from DOS, with various clones, to Windows, with various clones, the one I use most on Win2K being Total Commander (shareware)  http://www.ghisler.com

More here - Orthodox File Managers: Simplicity Rules

http://www.softpanor....org/OFM/index.shtml

Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov's page devoted to the Orthodox File Managers (OFMs) that are also known as "Commanders". Members of this family of file managers use simple yet very powerful interface that is a direct derivative of Norton Commander (NC) interface

3129
Living Room / Re: calling all bored cat lovers
« on: September 02, 2005, 08:17 AM »
Try Leslie Fish's (true?) cat stories
http://www.kayshapero.net/FishTale.htm

I owe this link to Kay Shapero, who hosts it; Kay is a Notable Purrson in furry fandom and also does filk (science fiction folk songs).  She also put me on to one of the funniest sites on the Web, the Definitive Exploding Whale Web Site, to which she also has a link (and a song).



3130
General Review Discussion / Re: Vote for what Review to do Next
« on: September 02, 2005, 07:57 AM »
Treepad and Keynote aren't the only free ones.  There's also (at least)

Action Outline Lite  http://www.greenparrots.com

TreeDBNotes Lite  http://www.softviewer.com/treedbnotes/

Treeline  http://www.bellz.org/treeline/index.html
(this one uses XML as its native file format)

My Life Organized (MLO)  www.mylifeorganized.net

I assume EssentialPIM has a hierarchical organizer too, but the free version doesn't have a file import function to ingest pre-existing text files, so I didn't look further.

plus a myriad of payware...

BTW, ShadowPlan, the Palm PIM, also uses XML, but its Windows version doesn't seem to be as good.

3131
General Review Discussion / Re: Vote for what Review to do Next
« on: September 02, 2005, 03:44 AM »
i myself was a happy user of jot+, for its simple no-nonsense interface, but i bolted when they wanted to charge me to upgrade.

I'm never quite sure about that.  I suppose it depends on the software type.  We had an expensive special-purpose software system for making health & safety data sheets at work once, with minimal support costs.  The company eventually went bust.  The replacement software has much higher ongoing costs - but that company is still in business.

If you quit Jot+, what did you do?  Could you convert your data to a new system without trouble?

Mouser, do you ever sleep?  Or are you permanently nocturnal?

3132
General Review Discussion / Re: Vote for what Review to do Next
« on: September 02, 2005, 03:31 AM »
As it's such a big category, are you going to break it down into sections?  I.e., one or all of one-, two-, or three-pane organizers?  Outliners? Notetakers that sit in your system tray?  Will "sticky notes" programs count?  Umm...  maybe not those, they aren't hierarchical in the sense I think you mean, though Magic Notes has "Groups."

There're so many ways of taking notes - I still haven't found the best solution.  In DOS, Memory Mate came close.

BTW, just read this link; Discussion of outliners for writers mentions Writer's Block, Jot+Notes, SuperNotecard, ndxCards, StoryView, StoryLines, Treepad, Treepad, UltraRecall, AMD:

http://www.outliners...om/discuss/msgReader$3573?mode=topic

Someone remarks the Internet is "littered" (sic) with two-pane organizers.

3133
General Review Discussion / Re: Vote for what Review to do Next
« on: September 01, 2005, 10:02 AM »
The Fred's Shack listing is the most comprehensive, but his comments are very brief.

Giant category all right, and, therefore, reviews very quickly date.  I wish people would quote version numbers of the programs they review, dates of the program executables if there isn't another obvious date, plus the date when they reviewed it.  Then you have a rough idea of how far behind the times the reivew is...

3134
General Review Discussion / Re: Vote for what Review to do Next
« on: September 01, 2005, 08:19 AM »
looks pretty clear what we're going to be reviewing next, if the trend continues.
Note taking programs, here we come.

Oh, no.  Do you realise just how many reviews of those there are on the Web already? 

John Buckman's home page, with links to his pages on outliner (folding editor) / organiser programs
http://john.redmood.com/index.html
(best but getting dated)

Fred's Shack comments on outliners, and how to set up ECCO
http://www.fredshack.com/docs/pim.html
(most comprehensive but terse)

Fog Creek Software's organizing random notes discussion: part of Joel on Software Web site
http://discuss.fogcr...how&ixPost=71582


John Faughnan's Web site on outliners/organisers, including MORE and ThinkTank
http://www.faughnan.com/more/index.html


Mark T.A.W. (TAW) smallware
http://www.marktaw.c...voriteSmallware.html
(big fan of Treepad Lite)

Dan Butler's "PIM's and where we are today" is also relevant but I don't have the URL.


(0h, all right, do a better review, see if I care!)

3135
General Review Discussion / Re: Free PDF tools review?
« on: September 01, 2005, 08:08 AM »
How about a review of the best of the free PDF tools out there.  There are a ton of
tools that will let you print to PDF, but very few that will do the more important stuff--splitting and merging, etc.  Anyone else like this idea?

I mentioned this somewhere else, but here's a bit more blurb;

pdftk - PDF toolkit

http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/


=== begin quote ===
If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk is an electronic staple-remover,
 hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses. Pdftk is a
 command-line tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents. Keep one in the
 top drawer of your desktop and use it to:

Merge PDF Documents
Split PDF Pages into a New Document
Decrypt Input as Necessary (Password Required)
Encrypt Output as Desired
Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
Apply a Background Watermark
Report on PDF Metrics such as Metadata, Bookmarks, and Page Labels
Update PDF Metadata
Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
Unpack PDF Attachments
Burst a PDF Document into Single Pages
Uncompress and Re-Compress Page Streams
Repair Corrupted PDF (Where Possible)
Pdftk allows you to manipulate PDF easily and freely. It does not require
 Acrobat, and it runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Solaris.

Pdftk is free software (GPL).
=== end quote ===

The password feature didn't work for me the only time I tried it, but the splitting and merging features work a treat.  Although this is a command-line application, the Web site has a link to a WinGUI shell for most of the major features.

3136
Sorry no photo of my part of the world - I don't have the technology...

You have the technology! Surely there must be an internet image you can link to of somewhere nearby ;)

You could try here for starters:

I think I'd be embarassed at using someone else's images, and I don't have digital photography of my own.  I stick to film and don't have a scanner.

3137
this isn't the view from my window but it's not far away - Alport Heights, Derbyshire, England.

the dude in the picture is 'Reado' a friend of mine - he's now gone missing in the good

Is that as in, Alport Castles?  If so, I vaguely remember walking there once, on an Easter break at Losehill Hall.

3138
General Software Discussion / Re: Macro programs - advice sought...
« on: September 01, 2005, 04:35 AM »
Doesn't AutoHotKey keep its macros in the Registry?  I'd rather avoid that.
no no. AHK works with scripts in a text file.

Thanks, Stefan.  Looks like I misremembered.  I used the search function at http://www.tinyapps.org to check.  It apparently makes one Registry key to associate AHK files with AutoKey.  That's not too bad...

OTOH, I'm a registered user of Macro Express and seem to be using PowerPro for now.  How many macor programs do I need?    :)

Very considerate of you to put up your "Stefan's House" notice - in English  :)

3139
The nearest hill is Penhill, the one to the right of it in the distance is Buckden Pike.

How about a photo of your part of Somerset?

Hmmm, isn't Penhill a launchpad for broomstick aviators?

Sorry no photo of my part of the world - I don't have the technology...

3140
Oops, sorry - looks like Bonsai might only be Palm.

3141
Nice to see someone else from the UK.  I'm in north Somerset.  Is that Ingleborough or something rather like it on your horizon?


3142
Image Manager Shootout / Re: Xnview vs. Irfan View
« on: August 31, 2005, 08:07 AM »
hi rj-

we've been having a running discussion of the file open/save dialog box extenders.
see this post: https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=506.0

in fact we are going to do a review of them very soon.

sounds like you are one of us who couldn't live without such a tool :)

Found that afterwards  :-/  Actually, I found a way round it for what I wanted to do.  That was, print out the first pages, only, of a series of PDF files.   Eventually I realised that all I had to do was point Total Commander at the directory they were in.  Because Acrobat reader is a known application to TC, all I had to do was Alt-Tab to TC, move the cursor down one, and hit Enter...  Later I discovered the freeware PDF Toolkit, so now I use pdftk to construct a new PDF file out of the front pages, and just print that complete.

pdftk - PDF toolkit

http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/

3143
if anyone knows of an organiser that will sync with a pocket pc then i'd like to know, please.

Doesn't Natara Bonsai do that?

http://www.natara.com/index.cfm

ShadowPlan seems well-liked on the Palm, but the PC version is less good.  Jot+Notes has some degree of synchronization with it, but I don't think there's a Pocket PC version

http://www.codejedi.com/


3144
General Software Discussion / Re: Macro programs - advice sought...
« on: August 31, 2005, 07:58 AM »
Doesn't AutoHotKey keep its macros in the Registry?  I'd rather avoid that.

3145
Maybe folk should look at the Yahoo! group Power Tools Software
http://groups.yahoo..../powertoolssoftware/

where this kind of thing is a preoccupation?

I've recently been playing with JBLab Secure Notes, which is cheap shareware and small and fast, but still has rough edges

http://www.jblab.com/pim.html

Password generator, encrypted, special past mode for Web (tries to guess the right node name), reminder feature that I haven't tried.

--
Robert Bull

3146
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: My new favorite pen
« on: August 31, 2005, 04:38 AM »
I like Pilot G2 gel ink, Uniball "eye" micro for fine work, Uniball micro deluxe waterproof for permanence; Pilot's pencils and ballpoints based on the same basic tubing and grip as the G2; my old but excellent Papermate, with fine black refill; a cheap Zebra pencil; and Sheaffer "No Nonsense" fountain pens.  Keep looking at Lamy fountain pens, too  :-)  Essentially, the pen/pencil that works best is the one that wants to work, so for me that means light in weight (a plus for plastic), isn't too thin to hold comfortably, gives a dense line, and preferably doesn't make a mess.  For that reason, I mostly use Zebra or Pilot pencils with the softest leads I can find, usually 0.5mm B or 2B, for scribbling.

I seem to be a sucker for writing implements  :-))

--
Robert Bull

3147
Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: PowerPro
« on: August 31, 2005, 04:29 AM »
PowerPro is amazing but the most inscrutably opoaque program I've ever seen...

--
Robert Bull

3148
General Software Discussion / Re: Macro programs - advice sought...
« on: August 31, 2005, 04:23 AM »
The answer to macro programs seems to be:

"PowerPro.  Now, how much time are you prepared to put into getting to grips with it?"

PowerPro, freeware macro program for Windows
http://powerpro.webeddie.com/index.html

Beginners user group / mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo..../powerpro-beginners/

Main mailing list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/power-pro/

PC Rangers third-party PowerPro support
http://powerpro.pcrei.com
Contains archives of the user groups, the "Wink" based Flash demos, etc.


--
Robert Bull


3149
Passpack by DS Software (Dariusz Stanislawek)
http://members.ozema...etv/freezip/freeware

Not so many features but tiny - the .EXE is less than 15K - no-install, fast and free

--
Robert Bull

3150
Backup Guide / Re: MirrorFolder compared to reviewed programs?
« on: August 31, 2005, 04:07 AM »
I would most likely use XXCopy, the "boldly extended XCOPY"
http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm
set up in a batch file run from a "CRON"-type scheduler (I never tried the Windows scheduler).  The cron I use is OTTO, short for "ottomate" <groan> from
Eric Taucke's software:
http://user.mc.net/~warp/index.html

there's also nnCron.

some fold would think of SyncBack from 2BrightSparks but that's a back-up which isn't quite the same as a mirror.

--
Robert Bull

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