Messages

1176

Living Room / Re: How to Sell Linux to Schools

« on: June 03, 2010, 11:08 AM »

MS Office is the standard and will remain so until major players switch away from it. Switching just because a software suite is "free" is not a good enough reason if the software switch involves massive retraining and additional support costs when the software does not work in a way that is intuitive to the end-user.

-Josh (June 03, 2010, 10:41 AM)

But which MS Office? 2003, 2007, 2010?

2003 & 2007 appear radically different to most users and the alternative office suites - OO etc - seem as much (or more) like 2003 as the later versions of MS Office do.

And for most users, who just use computers as they have been set up for them, adjustment to Linux rather than Windows comes very quickly.

1177

General Software Discussion / Re: PikyBasket replaced by Copywhiz

« on: June 02, 2010, 09:13 AM »

Many users felt that the previous version (PikyBasket) was not easy to use. We agree to them completely. The new version Copywhiz is simpler & more intuitive.

-Conceptworld

So that's $10 please.

I am thoroughly unimpressed.

-tinjaw (June 02, 2010, 07:54 AM)

Indeed. Who wouldn't be?

1178

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: PuranDefrag V7 now free for home use

« on: May 23, 2010, 06:35 AM »

Does anyone have any idea how Puran Defrag (the free version) compares with Perfect Disk? 

-cyberdiva (May 22, 2010, 08:10 PM)

I'd be interested in this too. I have Perfect Disk (2008 - I got rather irritated by all the requests to upgrade, when I wasn't clear about the benefits) but now find that I tend to use Puran. Not that I have anything set to auto defrag, and I don't tend to defrag frequently.

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Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Virtualization Manager 9.5 Free until 5/24/2010

« on: May 22, 2010, 05:48 AM »

IIRC, the way they work versions now is that 9.5 is the same as 10 (the most recent version) but will be without WinPE (or whatever). There was a description of the system on GAOTD comments at some point.

1180

Living Room / Re: Google Search

« on: May 19, 2010, 04:54 PM »

But it's not just Google that does this. Same results from Ask, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo (and others I assume - I gave up at that point).

1181

General Software Discussion / Re: RAMdisk on XP 32bit - brainstorming!

« on: May 15, 2010, 09:22 AM »

I notice that the SoftPerfect RAM disk is coming up at BdJ tomorrow ($9)

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Living Room / Re: Must Login to BDJ to See All Future Deals Now

« on: May 10, 2010, 01:36 PM »

It's Iconico now isn't it?

All seems very strange to me. I'll not sign up. Might mean I lose a few progs I might otherwise buy - but I have to be around on the day anyway. Mostly it will mean less exposure for BdJ and its clients, so the decision seems quite bizarre. The forums are either worth going to or not; I can't see people being forced to them. Tracking people should already be possible through IP - but this will lead to names etc, so that might be the difference.

1183

General Software Discussion / Re: Clipboard Managing-Which one?

« on: May 06, 2010, 04:54 AM »

I have Snagit 9 installed, and it may be the most advanced clipboard you can have, but... I don't use it! It is not to my liking.

-Curt (May 06, 2010, 04:48 AM)

I also have Snagit, and like it very much. But I don't consider it a clipboard manager as such - I use it for capture and some editing.

1184

General Software Discussion / Re: Clipboard Managing-Which one?

« on: May 06, 2010, 04:52 AM »

When I looked, I found ClipMate the best, and I've never seen anything to give me any cause to reconsider.
I found Dittoto be the best free program at the time, and would be very interested to know if anyone thinks there a a better free alternative to it now.

1185

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 30, 2010, 10:56 AM »

So it still worked... they just didn't have an image to restore because iPhone 4.0 OS is not out yet.

-wraith808 (April 30, 2010, 10:46 AM)

Except it didn't, because they didn't have the means to make it work. Only Apple did.

1186

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 30, 2010, 10:33 AM »

Where do you get that it was not workable?  They wiped the data remotely.  You can do the same thing with MobileMe.  It doesn't make the phone unuseable- it just wipes it to remove your personal data.

-wraith808 (April 30, 2010, 09:08 AM)

From the original Gizmodo article:-

Thinking about returning the phone the next day, he left. When he woke up after the hazy night, the phone was dead. Bricked remotely

Now I don't know if it was just data wiped or bricked. But dead and bricked is what they said.
And what you would expect Apple to be able to do on the secret prototypes they allow to float around in the community.

1187

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 30, 2010, 07:45 AM »

For a prototype iPhone that's fully workable and not akin to the used market at all?  And has extra features that you won't find in any iPhone?  I defy you to find any judge that would value that at less than $100.

-wraith808 (April 29, 2010, 09:43 AM)

Except it was quickly not workable at all. So used phone of unknown origin, that doesn't work. Value low.

OTOH, after (presumably) some digging around it was thought worth taking to Gizmodo. They paid $5000. $5000 is more than $100. Except they were really paying for their expectation of a big scoop and not the phone itself since they expected to return that to owner after checking what it actually was and publishing.

1188

General Software Discussion / Re: Review of 7 Cloud Storage Services

« on: April 29, 2010, 06:04 PM »

And how can they possibly say what they say about Carbonite without concluding that it should be avoided? And how can they say that they didn't bother looking at Mozy because it was just like Carbonite?

Pretty random selection of services too.

1189

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 29, 2010, 06:00 PM »

The legal definition of theft in this case is defined by California code- and it is a bit wider than your comment takes into account.  There is a legal responsibility in California to return found material. 

-wraith808 (April 29, 2010, 04:40 PM)

Actually, there are variations between the criminal and civil codes and the effort required to return an article is arguable (and certainly will be argued if it ever ends up in Court). If Gizmodo had bought and then kept the phone, there's no question it would have been theft. But they publicised it in a way that Apple had to notice; that can be construed as an attempt to draw the attention of the owner to the presence of the item. I can't remember what the original article said - but iirc then it was unwise of them to say they bought the phone. Paying money as a reward for possible Apple related info is possibly more defensible as well as being closer to the truth. It is hard to see very much positive about the original finder's behaviour - accepting $5000, in whatever guise, for handing over an object to someone you know is not the owner can't be justified, though it doesn't necessarily mean that the phone was stolen. From the Gizmodo side, most journalists would be happy to pay large sums for a good scoop which is what they actually paid for (though I had never really twigged exactly how much money some of these sites can play around with). I'm not sure that all the things they have said would have got through a publishers' legal team in the form they said them in though (not that I've read much of what they have said/written directly), and that opens up the possibility of some trouble for them.

I don't think the IP thing is a major issue. At best, what can be seen by opening the phone is a minor secret - it will soon be public anyway - so its value is fairly limited. But Apple will have a right to get any info taken from Gizmodo that they took from the phone and still have - should be a civil matter though.

It's interesting that the police seem to be going after Gizmodo rather than the original finder.

1190

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 29, 2010, 02:11 PM »

I'm surprised at the number of vehement opinions given, which appear to take no account of a legal definition of theft. Not even with a brief read of wikipedia. Juristictions vary somewhat, but they all include aspects of unlawful taking (or not attempting to return) and the intent of keeping (permanently depriving the owner). Here, the finder attempted to return and the 'buyer' (it's unclear exactly what was being 'bought', probably just the transfer of the item) then advertised their possession of the article with sufficient information that the owner was able to identify their property and get it back when they asked. Trying to make this stick as theft would prove exceedingly difficult if there was a fractionally competent lawyer involved in the defence. And quoting a blog from  a competitor (claims to be an erstwhile competitor, but there's a surprisingly long paragraph on the previous competition), who shows no knowledge of the situation at all and appears to be using it as a rant against Gizmodo scarcely bolsters any argument.

1191

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« on: April 29, 2010, 07:00 AM »

Can anyone give examples of forums (with tags etc) that they think have better forum features than DC? I've seen all sorts of things like this in other places, and have generally thought that they've made things worse (or no better at best). I can see some sort of system, as on Amazon, that says "Other people who looked at this also looked at these", "If you like this, you might like these" might help navigate to other relevant/interesting threads, articles or reviews, but I don't think I have seen a feature like that anywhere - and simple tagging just doesn't do it for me.

1192

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 28, 2010, 09:41 AM »

Apple is despicable. They are a petty, vindictive, sinister, secretive, closed, greedy, back-stabbing, disgraceful and evil company.

-Renegade (April 28, 2010, 06:04 AM)

It still bears even more repeating.
And it wasn't me that said it   

1193

Living Room / Re: Apple instigates Police Raid over lost/stolen iPhone 4G

« on: April 28, 2010, 09:38 AM »

 Who can pay $5000 for a phone that they know is not the person's who they are paying, and think that's right?

-wraith808 (April 27, 2010, 08:37 PM)

By paying the money and writing the story, they managed to get Apple to ask for their phone back.

If they hadn't paid the money & inspected the phone themselves, they could never have been sure it was Apple's instead of the imitation the Apple support people originally believed it to be. It wasn't impossible that they were paying for a copy.

1194

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows vs. Mac: I'm starting to change.

« on: April 26, 2010, 07:45 PM »

Limiting options up front, means that you can limit your design parameters; limiting consumer options with the device, keeps everything simple and massively cuts support needs and the number of people saying that x or y doesn't work (and they have enough of that already really given how limited the options are. And it wouldn't fit with their brand image.

I would have said that the only thing that would make them change would be losing market share to competitors purely because the competitors offered more options - except that when they were in that situation they still carried on in the same way.

1195

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« on: April 26, 2010, 07:37 PM »

Seems to me that DC has an awful lot of members for a site like this, so I don't think many people are being put off by the idea or practice of donating. Also seems to me that there's a lot of posts and threads and a lot of continuity of ideas and discussion as well as a lot of new ideas and discussions; not many sites have that either, and I don't think we'd have that if the mix of posters changed.

AFAICS, the site is for people interested in software (writing/using or both) and has a high proportion of nice, helpful and knowledgeable posters and a lot of that character comes across because threads do veer from serious and focussed to inconsequential and funny.

I'm not sure there's a great deal broken in any of that and I wouldn't want it to change. Not to say there aren't things that could be done better, but we don't want to risk losing anything to do it.

Which sort of brings me to the wiki. In some ways I like the idea, but I do have a concern about whether it is really the way to go. For a wiki to be useful, it needs to be kept up-to-date. There's a lot of subjects we would want in it and keeping a lot of things up-to-date on a forum as active as these would take a lot of effort and even more commitment, however many people it was spread across. I'm sure we'd be able to set it up, I'm not so sure we would succeed in keeping it going at the same level. And a lot of that effort would just be recycling stuff that is here already (even if it is not always easy to find). I just feel that there is probably a more productive way for that time to be used.

But there is a real issue over reviews. Useful reviews are ever more difficult for Search to find on the net, being swamped by software download sites and short opinions/reviews/blogs often of a single product by people whose experience and expertise is debatable once you have read the review. There is a lot of knowledge and expertise in forum members and a lot comes through in the forums. What the old, big reviews had was a systematic approach by what seemed to be a single person (?) per review, probably with extra input, and it was possible to see the biases and factors they believed important. I suspect that our time would be better spent getting closer to that model again. Possibly with comments & relevant threads being edited and maintained in an accompanying wiki, and with updates. Before a review was tackled, we could all comment on the factors we personally find important in that type of software and suggest which software should be looked at. I wasn't really around at the time, but it does feel rather like the old model.  I don't know if it is possible, but I do know that if I was looking on the net for something, it is what I would be searching for.

1196

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows vs. Mac: I'm starting to change.

« on: April 26, 2010, 06:58 PM »

What Apple are essentially doing is turning computers and related gadgets into consumer items like cd players, TVs etc which "just work". You cannot really do that without controlling the hardware and the software and without severely limiting consumer options. Earlier generations (well, at least it will be earlier generations to a lot of people here) of geeks had to spend their time with soldering irons or in garages with oil and spanners.

The Microsoft stage succeeded in separating OS from hardware in computers and thereby provided the incentive and impetus for computers to get very cheap. Apple have now been able to take advantage of the cheapness by giving a lot of people what they think they want. Designer labels are the order of the day, and that is what Apple have created.

1197

Site/Forum Features / Re: Discussion: How can we Improve DonationCoder?

« on: April 22, 2010, 08:31 PM »

i was a bit harsh o[/i]

-mouser (April 22, 2010, 07:27 PM)

If you were harsh, I'm not sure what the appropriate adjective would be for their comments.

I'd been meaning to join in the thread about why we came to DC. For me it was the big reviews. I read one (& more) and was impressed by the detail & impartiality. Over later months I had to try to remember what that site was which I thought had reviews that helped me to think about what issues I should be interested in, so I could check whether there was a review on my latest area of interest. Eventually discovered it again, even more eventually found the Forums and stayed. Of course, the big reviews appear to have ended. Not liked to mention it before since the obvious response is "Why don't you do one?" and I know I don't have the time - and can't and don't expect anyone else to either; it clearly was a major effort for anyone to have done one, let alone more. Finding a way of getting closer to that end would be good though: even with regular reading of nearly everything, having a clear idea of the current views on any area of software is difficult, and there are often so many threads now that it can be quite time consuming to track down a particular discussion that I remember reading.

1198

Site/Forum Features / Re: NANY 2011 :: A New Concept -- Have your say!

« on: April 22, 2010, 08:20 PM »

In the case of CircleDock, you know it's only very loosely associatedly with DC and the distance has always been there.

-lotusrootstarch (April 18, 2010, 05:45 AM)

IIRC, CircleDock only came about because of a competition on DC (although Eric clearly had the idea anyway).

One of the things that has distinguished CircleDock & Trout is not their meeting the criteria mentioned at the start of the thread, but the fact that they found enthusiastic supporters and developer enthusiasm was also maintained (even if, in the case of CD, it required new people to step in - thank you Markham & Dr Wicked & SgtEvMcKay). It is this continued development and support that is the mark of a successful program and that won't really be measurable at the end of a NANYaprocess, which may only have left just enough time to get a program out of the door.

As I'm not a coder, I've only just read this thread because of Mouser's How Can We Improve DonationCoder? thread and I'm not sure I really have much to say. I can see that finding different ways of making it interesting and stimulating to programmers would be good - and that probably does need some changes every year (if it is every year) - but highlighting the boring bits might not quite do that.

1199

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Mini Review of SugarSync and DropBox

« on: April 22, 2010, 07:03 AM »

Thought I would mention Humyo here as well. Functionality seems very similar to SugarSyncs and the pricing is $70/year for 100GB.

-markan (April 22, 2010, 06:31 AM)

10GB free is good too. Interesting that a second 100GB is more expensive than the first; I assume that is because they know there is more actual usage.

What makes me most wary of this market is the sheer number of alternatives. Hard to see that they will all survive long-term, so I'd hate to get dependent on something that might go. Even the apparently successful ones may not be very profitable, so it is hard to predict which ones will keep going.

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General Software Discussion / Re: DuckDuckGo - new search engine

« on: April 22, 2010, 06:56 AM »

I tried a search.

It came up with one result which was related to what I was looking for, but wasn't.

The second entry on the results page was a suggestion/link to try Google. I did, and Google came up with a page of the sorts of results I was looking for.