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Messages - muntealb [ switch to compact view ]

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1
Yes, it works, I can confirm that for Windows 7 32-bit. And without compatibility mode.

2
Which is taking advantage of a loophole to gain free use of software past the provided trial period. Surely an effective 60 days of usage is enough to decide whether Opus is for you or not?

I think you are overreacting. It's not like I recommended him to go and download a cracked version from a warez or a bittorrent site. Usage of virtualization technology may be a loophole from the point of view of shareware producers, but it is legal. And on this forum full of knowledgeable people in the software domain, probably a good portion of them already have virtualization software installed, so it's nothing new for the most part.

Virtualization comes handy when a software trial limit has expired or is near expiring date. There are times when someone wants to try a software, installs it and then he must do something else, forgots or does not have time to pursue the testing. The time passes, even 1-2 months and when he has time to test, the trial period has expired. Instead of downloading a cracked copy, he can test the trial version in a virtual machine. 

Directory Opus is a great software and is worth the money paid for it. It has a shortcoming though, namely it doesn't have a language file in text format, so it is not freely translatable by anyone who wants to do it. I myself use UltraExplorer and FreeCommander, which are free and also freely translatable.

3
I've been tempted to give DOpus another try for its "file collections" feature, without which I'm finding it more and more impossible to live. But the current version is still 9.1, which means I cannot install the trial anymore, since my trial license (and the 60-day extension) expired sometime in November 2007, almost 2 years ago.

You can install the trial of DOpus, if you use virtualization software. Both Virtual PC and VirtualBox are free, and you can create a Windows virtual machine to use for testing software past the expiration date of the trial installed on the physical machine (the actual computer). If you choose Virtual PC, then you can use the Windows OS images provided for free by MS. They can be used for 120 days, then you must download them again.

4
General Software Discussion / Re: bookTome the book organiser
« on: July 12, 2009, 11:55 PM »
Unfortunately, it is completely unusable when using Large Fonts (120 p) in Windows.

5
You should consider adding FlexTK (http://www.flexense.com) to the list of File Managers on the page.

Added.

P.S. For anyone wanting to suggest a software, please use an e-mail message (my DC forum username @gmail.com) or a personal message using the forum feature.

6
The links present in the table point to Wikipedia ENG articles, not to external sites, and I just respected this pattern. However, EditPad doesn't have such an article, so the link is red and points to a blank page. EditPad only has an article on Wikipedia NL (dutch). But anybody can write an article on Wikipedia ENG. See also the list of text editors, where there are many programs that don't have yet a Wikipedia page.

I tried to use Website-Watcher on the text file containing the source of the HTML page, but it doesn't work. Anyway, I will manually check the list, which is a tedious process, but I don't think it will take more than 4 hours (at 1 hour per day it is feasible).

7
Grorgy, I hope that you will raise soon your download abilities. In Romania, we had one of the worst situations in Europe (only dial-up and very expensive) and now things are much better, with all the broadband options (optic fiber, cable and ADSL) available and uncapped. I can now download all that I want, but I do remember the days when I had to download only the programs that were tiny in size.

Rjbull, I knew about the software that you recommend. Website-Watcher is very good, I have tested it before, but I don't see myself entering 1000+ web addresses in the program and monitoring them. There is also Newzie that is free and has a similar function, but it also needs the addresses to be entered manually. AM-DeadLink is mainly for browser bookmarks.

Widgewunner, actually the idea to have in the list the addreses of some Wikpedia pages was not mine, but I thought that it was useful, although I rarely look for informations about software on Wikipedia. The comparison tables are indeed useful, but not perfect, and I am also amazed about the absence of EditPad. I have edited the Wikipedia page and now EditPad Pro is also present.

8
Well Innuendo, about the people "too lazy" to search for themselves, it is yes and no. Surely some people that use the list belong to this category, but there are also people that really don't have the time to search and download twenty or thirty programs, then decide which is the best. And also there are those for which the downloads are expensive. Actually the idea for the list came from such a situation. At the time I had a dial-up connection for which I had to pay by the minute, so it was not possible to download myself programs above 20 MB, it was extremely expensive to do it. So the list was at first composed from programs that were on the CDs of two computer magazines that I bought every month for several years. Of course, nowadays I have a high speed connection which is paid with a fixed sum. But back then, I thought about others like me, which could not to download and test all the software they wanted. It is easier for them to download maybe 4 or 5 programs from my list, then decide which is the best.

A software that spots differences in the pages could be useful, but it generates too many false positives, because each time that a software page is updated (new version) I will receive an alert, not only when a page disappears or is replaced with one from a parked domain.

Yes Curt, I only add software tested by myself. Of course the testing is not very thorough, because I don't have so much time at hand. But I usually can tell if a software is good after I use it for 5-10 minutes. But I also listen to the opinion of others, this makes things easier. If a respected member of the DC community says that the software X is good and he has used it for a year or more, of course that I download the software and test it for only 5 minutes, then add it to the list. That's because on DC there are many people that can be trusted when it comes about their software choices. There are some exceptions to the testing routine, mainly for software that cannot be downloaded freely, but otherwise is considered as being one of the best in its category (CATIA, Bentley, etc.).

Sajman99, thanks for the kind words.

Brotman, I judge the software like many others, based on some universal criteria:

1) Functionality (features)
2) Usability (ease of use, intuitive interface)
3) Stability (no major bugs)
4) Graphical Aspect (pleasant to the eye)

The U is for Unicode compatibilty, it is specified at the bottom of the pages in the explanatory notes. This is especially important for non-english users. A software that is not Unicode compatible cannot process files that are encoded with Unicode. For example a PDF file that has been encoded in Unicode cannot be edited with a PDF editor that is not Unicode compatible. For many people Unicode compatibility is the first thing that they want in a software. No matter how feature rich is a specific program, it is for no use if someone needs Unicode compatibility above all the other features.

9
Innuendo, some time ago I had something similar with what you have proposed, but almost nobody used it, so I removed it. Anyway, I have now added two links at the bottom of the pages (in the explanatory notes) that will open new e-mail messages with the subject already written.

Tinjaw, I did not know about W3C Link Checker, so I tested it with the pages. It works, but it generates false positives like the ones showed below.
====================
Checking link http://www.helpandmanual.com/
HEAD http://www.helpandmanual.com/
-> GET http://www.ec-software.com/error404.html
-> GET http://www.ec-software.com/error404.html  fetched in 3.61s

Checking link http://www.mobile-master.com/
HEAD http://www.mobile-master.com/
-> GET http://www.mobile-master.com/404.html  fetched in 3.23s

======================

I checked again the list yesterday with the FF extension and found only 5 instances where the software was gone (site was removed from the internet) and 15 instances where the software page was present, but moved at a different address than that specified on my page. Of course I have uploaded the updated pages on my site.

The FF extension is more intuitive (it has colors) and more accurate, in my opinion. None of the link checkers can detect parked domains and this is the biggest problem.

Curt, the ad popup is an usual one, just like 4wd explained. It has 3 or 4 text links similar with Google AdSense and is under the control of the hosting provider. They get the revenue needed to provide the hosting for free.

10
Yes, I know a few links are broken, but I try to detect them by checking the list regularly with the LinkChecker extension for Firefox. However, these days the abandoned domains are parked, rather than removed from the internet. LinkChecker detects only the 404 pages, so a manual check is better, but it is time consuming for such a huge list. I have done it a year ago, maybe it is time to do it again...

11
I have compiled a list of the best software currently available, freeware or shareware. The list has more than 1000 items and is structured in sections (for example "Internet") with subsections (Browsers, RSS, FTP, etc.). Over the years I have installed and tested the majority of the software presented in the list, so the content of the list is based on my experience.

The list has two parts and is available at:

http://muntealb.orgf...i/links-software.htm

http://muntealb.orgf...links-software-2.htm

12
RarmaRadio (shareware) is probably the best program for those that are passionate about internet radio (it offers the possibility to schedule recordings).

RadioSure (freeware) is the best for casual listeners like myself, because it's easy to use and has enough radio stations included to suit all the tastes.

13
There is also PNotes, which is completely compatible with Unicode, a feature encountered in very few of the sticky notes applications. It is free and open source. Also portable.

http://pnotes.sourceforge.net/


14
yes i did but i couldn't find the 2nd item: "Language for non-Unicode programs". here are the screenshots from PC.
 

It's easy to find it. There are 3 tabs in the main window (Regional and Language Options) :

Regional Options
Languages
Advanced

The setting for non-Unicode programs is in the Advanced tab.


15
Did you also check the language options ?

Regional and Language Options>Languages>Text Services>Details>Default input language

Regional and Language Options>Advanced>Language for non-Unicode programs

16
I think EditPad Pro can do what you want. It has a Custom Coloring Syntax Editor that can be used to colorize text based on rules created using regular expressions. This software is free, but only for those that have purchased EditPad Pro.

http://www.editpadpr...com/cscs.html#editor

17
General Software Discussion / Re: Screamer Menu
« on: March 26, 2009, 11:57 AM »
You just double-click Screamer Menu and it will atach itself to the Screamer Radio window. Then you will be able to search and filter the list of preinstalled stations.

But you could use RadioSure instead of Radio Screamer, in RadioSure the functionality to search in realtime is built-in.

http://www.radiosure.com/ (freeware)

18
I've just been looking at a few more Windows editors. 
I looked at (freeware) Metapad, TED Notepad (great little editor), Crimson Editor (nice), PSPad, Notetab Light, PFE, Editor2, ConTEXT, and briefly at (payware) Boxer. 
......................................
Compare this with WordStar-style editors.  You drop a Start Block marker with Control-K,B (^KB).  You can use ^QF Find to locate a target point, or ^QM/^Q1 to go to a bookmark - and the Start Block marker is unaffected while you do so.  When you've marked what you want, you drop an End Block marker with ^KK and the block is locked as a unit.  You can still whizz around the file without affecting your marked area.  It only becomes unmarked when you make a deliberate action to unmark it.  That's a far more efficient way than Notepad-style for handling text.  True, I believe Boxer and TED Notepad both have limited work-arounds, but not as good.
Do Windows editors really have to be so bad?  So much worse than my favourite WordStar-style DOS editor, VDE, at handling text?
Of course, WordStar is One True True Way for writers: here's author Robert Sawyer's manifesto on the subject.

EditPad Pro has a setting that automatically allows to use the shortcuts from Wordstar.

Options>Configure Toolbars and Menus>Keyboard Shortcuts>General Settings for Shortcuts>Use navigation keys from Wordstar>Apply Shortcuts from Wordstar

19
Good, because it just crashed when indexing files. I post below the error log. It seems the cause is a problem with MSVCR90.dll.

 Semnătură problemă:
  Nume eveniment problemă:   APPCRASH
  Nume aplicație:   StopKa.exe
  Versiune aplicație:   1.3.0.1
  Marcaj temporal aplicație:   4977ced9
  Nume modul defect:   MSVCR90.dll
  Versiune modul defect:   9.0.30729.1
  Marcaj temporal modul defect:   488ef6c5
  Cod excepție:   c0000005
  Deplasare excepție:   0003b690
  Versiune SO:   6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
  ID setări regionale:   1048
  Informații suplimentare 1:   16f2
  Informații suplimentare 2:   db36711f8bcf9e817b16b0258227e081
  Informații suplimentare 3:   5b52
  Informații suplimentare 4:   61dc0fe8de7f590534fdec73593733a5

20
The problem was not the folder, but the absence of Visual C++ 2008 SP1 runtime on my system. Once I have installed VC++, StopKa started normally. A "Readme" file with the system requirements could be included in the zip package of the portable installation.

It now indexes my files. CPU and memory consumption are a little better (<50% CPU and <400 MB RAM) compared to the previous version.

21
However, on my system it does not want to start. See the error message below. It's in romanian, but it says :

=========
The application could not start because its configuration is not correct. Check the log file of the application for more details.
=========

http://i40.tinypic.com/9qbsrb.jpg

Later Edit: It works now, after installing the Visual C++ 2008 SP1. I think StopKa should check for that and if it is not installed to prompt the user to download and install this MS package. Otherwise those that will download the setup file from any other place than the StopKa website will not know why the software does not work. And in the Readme file it should be mentioned that Visual C++ 2008 SP1 is a requirement for StopKa.

22
Actually it is worse than the previous version, from my point of view. It crashes at start, so it is unusable. I have Vista SP1 32-bit. It needs a log file that would record the crashes and the possible cause.

23
I have used the latest version available from the site on the day I have posted the message. However, I have redownloaded it today and it seems more stable. But when it indexes the disks it consumes too much processor (60-70% of a Core2Duo E8200) and RAM (500 MB from a total of 2GB).

On a different note, you must provide a help file with the program or on the site. Without it the less advanced users will have no idea how to use your software.

24
It looks nice, but it's extremely unstable.

25
I'm not sure how much difference multilanguage versions would have made as producing them would have increased costs.

I don't think so. If a software has enough users, there are great chances that some of them would want to translate it. Usually this work is rewarded with a free license, but there are users that already purchased a license and will do the translation for free, because they like the software and want to increase the number of users.

A good localization (interface + manual) brings users and consequently money. Had Ultra Recall  been localized in the languages spoken by populations around or larger than 100 million people (french, spanish, japanese, chinese, etc.), probably it would have sold enough licenses to continue development. However, these means full support for Unicode, because asian languages need it. I don't know how difficult would have been for Ultra Recall to provide a language file (text file with the strings from the menus and options), but this could have saved the software.

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