Recent Posts

1001

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2012, 09:13 AM »

OT Response

So be of good cheer. There is a good life after computers and the internet. No computer. But there are still paper books and home made musical instruments! That's the path I'll be heading down. Maybe even with a little bit of that Miracle Tonic every so often to ease me down the road.

-40hz (March 08, 2012, 08:34 AM)

Thanks for the videos - they really cheered me up. Now all I need is a fret saw!  

1002

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Desktop ---> web-page

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2012, 08:05 AM »

I think Stephen is talking the other way round - display your desktop on a webpage.

Team Viewer can do that to allow you access to your desktop remotely via a webpage - but not to be displayed publicly.

I suppose there is no reason why you couldn't take automated regular screenshots and upload them to a webcam type webpage. A live desktop on a website seems unlikely - think of the bandwidth?

1003

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2012, 08:01 AM »

Yikes - and I thought I was cynical ...

1004

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2012, 06:33 AM »

If you want a desktop operating system has anybody seen anything the Windows 8 adds to the Windows 7 experience (positive ideas here - we all know the frustrations added)?

Personally I can't see any new features in the desktop - it looks pretty much the same as Windows 7. I know there are changes under the hood but are there any practical changes that improve the user experience (or even change it except for the Start menu issues)?

1005

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2012, 05:41 AM »

Interesting experiment -

I have three screens which are independent. I extended Windows 8 onto three screens and now I can have legacy desktop on two and Metro on the other.

It also duplicates the taskbar on all 'desktop screens'.

Bit of a waste of real-estate using an entire screen for Metro.

Also note that Metro doesn't extend across multiple screens - it is effectively one screen sized window on the main desktop.

There is another disadvantage to multiple screens - if you have the centre screen as you main screen you have to be incredibly precise with your mouse in the corners of that screen to be able to bring up the corner menus. The hotspots are really small and your mouse easily drifts off the Metro interface. Basically multiple free screens will be really frustrating.

By the way it is worth watching the full version of the video in the Zaine's post as there is an extended time with Dad and Windows 8 which is interesting (yes he did find the Metro interface eventually). http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=XV9YYsE-yEk. The segment starts at around 54 minutes.

Another question - is what accessibility options are there for Metro - what about colour blindness etc. {EDIT}OK I found the accessibility options. Interestingly if you select accessibility options at the login screen you have to do it all again once you are logged in because Windows doesn't remember them. Of course you will probably need someone to find the accessibility options for you if you need them because you have to be able to use a mouse very accurately and then find a rather transparent small icon in a hidden toolbar - but hey people with visual impairment are only a tiny part of the market so it isn't surprising that the options are still really hidden away and they seem to have reduced the number of options available.{/EDIT}

1006

General Software Discussion / Re: How to win friends. Microsoft to CIOs: Adopt Windows 8 - or else.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 08, 2012, 05:11 AM »

Not sure nudone - I don't think there will ever be a Windows 9.

The next one will be Metro 2 and the "legacy desktop" will be gone altogether. MS are too wedded to their new 'philosophy' and are proving incredibly deaf to any dissenting comments.

This has nothing to do with what customers want, it is all money - they want a piece of the App market, having seen the cash cow that is Apple.

Personally I don't think the end of that video is a joke - I think that is what a lot of the general public will think and suddenly Apple will sell a lot of laptops and desktops and with a bigger economy of scale they will (if they have any sense) start reducing prices.

Microsoft started the pad and touch screen revolution but I think as far as the general public are concerned Apple has already won the war.

1007

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 07, 2012, 01:46 PM »

There are ways to convert audible files but they are not straightforward and tedious (software) or very laborious - burn the books to CD and then rip them back to MP3 - trouble is each book can be between 6 and 10 CDs.

1008

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 07, 2012, 10:17 AM »

If you install RockBox on a Clip+ does that mean you can use either firmare? RockBox by default but still access the original firmware (and therefore file formats RockBox doesn't support such as Audible)?

-Carol Haynes (March 07, 2012, 04:33 AM)

Yes.

If you power up while holding the Left button down, it starts the original Sansa firmware.

You can also put another firmware file onto the system with a .sansa extension and "play" it -- presumably so you can test different versions of the Sansa firmware without actually installing them. (See p151 of the current Rockbox Sansa Clip Plus manual.)

-oblivion (March 07, 2012, 05:00 AM)

Hmmm - was going to give it a go but this gave me pause for thought:

DRM capability. It is possible that installation of the bootloader may lead to you permanently
losing the ability to playback files with DRM. (page 13)

I don't have much DRM music but I do want to use Audible audiobooks.

1009

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 07, 2012, 04:33 AM »

Can someone clarify for me:

If you install RockBox on a Clip+ does that mean you can use either firmare? RockBox by default but still access the original firmware (and therefore file formats RockBox doesn't support such as Audible)?

1010

General Software Discussion / Re: SnagIt 11

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 07, 2012, 04:29 AM »

The catalogue of changes seem to be unimpressive and not worth the money. Most of them are minor bugfixes and quite a few removing features!

Nothing compelling added as far as I can see:

http://www.techsmith...-history.html?ver=11.

I have bought versions of SnagIt since version 2 but I don't think I will bother with this upgrade.

(By the way I thought SnagIt had supported video capture for some time - the ionly mew feature seems to be MP4 support, and output directly to three webservers - two of which belong to TechSmith and are subscription based)

1011

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 24-bit/192kHz music files make no sense - and may be bad for you!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2012, 11:18 AM »

I really liked the video - cleared up quite a few misconceptions (and probably spawned a few more too )

1012

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2012, 09:20 AM »

I think I may see if I can find some sort of skin for it that doesn't have an opening for the SD slot

-oblivion (March 06, 2012, 08:55 AM)

Small strip of black vinyl tape should do it.

1013

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 06, 2012, 05:47 AM »

Bummer - expensive accident!

1014

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2012, 01:13 PM »

It is supplied with USB mode set to Mass Storage (MSC) (because Apple doesn't work with MTP mode).

Change the USB mode in the device itself to MTP and it works fine.

Press home and find Settings, go to System Settings and then USBMode - select MTP, plug it in to your PC and it should work.

1015

Living Room / Re: Sansa Clip+ and Rockbox

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2012, 11:41 AM »

Can't remember where I saw the 16Gb limit but I think it was from the SanDisk website.

It appears they have now revised that to 32Gb (maybe a firmware update): http://kb.sandisk.co.../answers/detail/a_id

Which file formats are supported by RockBox? Does it support audible?

1016

Living Room / Re: Amazon pulls thousands of e-books... and the SFWA strikes back

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2012, 11:06 AM »

I'm starting to dread we'll see cheap gasoline abolished

-TaoPhoenix (March 05, 2012, 06:12 AM)

Already happened in Europe!! I am currently paying £1.44 (UKP) per litre (that is $2.29US a liter or $8.67US per US gallon, £6.55 (UKP) per UK gallon).

Parts of Europe are even more expensive.

1017

General Software Discussion / Re: How to remove Windows.old?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2012, 09:35 AM »

-the salesman said it would install without any questions,  and he was right.

I will need to purchase a cable to move the downloaded backup files from the desktop to the laptop - moving is faster, than downloading from Livedrive. So I must be on my way at once; it is almost closing time around here.

-Curt (March 05, 2012, 09:30 AM)

If you have an external drive use Windows Easy Transfer Wizard to backup your data and then double click the package on the new computer to restore it - pretty quick way of doing it.

1018

General Software Discussion / Re: How to remove Windows.old?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2012, 09:33 AM »

I thought OEM disks from manufacturers like Dell could only be sold to their own customers for restoring their own factory built systems and had to be customised according to the terms of the OEM license precisely to stop them being installed on other hardware.

Buying OEM disks through Amazon etc. is a different issue and they are identical to the standard retail DVDs - except the license number is encoded so that MS don't provide support.

1019

General Software Discussion / Re: How to remove Windows.old?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2012, 09:19 AM »

Sounds like a good plan - upgrades are never a good idea and even MS say side by side installs on the same disk are not advised.

Backup you data, bite the bullet and format your hard disk completely (in Windows 7 install use the tool to delete all the partitions and let it rebuild the new partitions you need so you start clean).

If it isn't a silly question how exactly did you manage to install a Dell copy of Windows 7 onto a Fujitsu computer - I though Dell windows disks looked at the BIOS for activation and would only install on Dell hardware?

1020

General Software Discussion / Re: How to remove Windows.old?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 05, 2012, 02:28 AM »

Depending on the age of the computer you might be able to find a tool for inserting a new image in the the BIOS then you could create "Curt's Computer" logo.

1021

General Software Discussion / Re: How to remove Windows.old?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2012, 05:03 PM »

Neither vista not windows 7 use boot.ini.

They both use bcdedit from a command prompt to edit the boot process. Not for the faint hearted!

1022

General Software Discussion / Re: How to remove Windows.old?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2012, 03:08 PM »

Could still be marked as present in the disk bitmap - run chkdsk c: /f to check the bitmap.

1023

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2012, 03:04 PM »

BTW, I thought they (canon) all had a chip on the cartridge now?

-tomos (March 04, 2012, 01:07 PM)

Probably true (my machine is a couple of years old). Chipping probably has an advantage - not just making Canon more money by forcing people to buy original ink. I have seen a lot of printheads killed by third party cheap ink (and have managed to get some working again but have been shocked at the amount of crap I managed to wash out of them).

What I mean by electronics is the printhead being included in every cartridge like many manufacturers do. I suppose it has the advantage of a new printhead each time but it is inevitably more expensive.

1024

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2012, 12:57 PM »

Lexmark, BTW, uses more black ink per page than any other manufacturer's inkjet printers.

-Innuendo (March 04, 2012, 12:48 PM)

Lexmark use a lot of ink just turning the thing on. Seriously I have had customers complaining they have never printed colour documents and yet they have to replace the colour cartridge just to print! Its all to do with the 'ahem' cleaning method used at switch on (also known as wasting as much ink as possible).

Epson have another fun little trick with their waste ink reservoir that fills up alarmingly quickly meaning they want you to send the printer back for a service (at more than the cost of the printer) - but we have had the built in obsolescence discussion elsewhere. Luckily there is an easy to find reset tool on the web that you can simple tell Epson where to go and carry on printing!

1025

General Software Discussion / Re: Superboyac is throwing in the towel: I'm going to transition to Linux

« Last post by Carol Haynes on March 04, 2012, 09:14 AM »

Canon has a 1 color per cartridge philosophy? My MP490 takes 2 cartridges....one black, one color....

-Josh (March 03, 2012, 07:22 PM)

That is because you are a cheapskate - the cheapo models use two cartridges and then they screw the money out of you for ink.

I always buy higher spec Canon models which use 4, 5 or 6 cartridges - which have no electronics.
For me it isn't just that they are cheaper to run (still not cheap though) - they are quiet and reliable and I find the drivers a less obtrusive and just work. Also they aren't full of promotional material and advertising unlike other mainstream manufacturers.

Compare to HP where driver packages are massive and are (at best) flaky on most models I have come across - requiring regular (and very time consuming removal and re-install .... never try their update system unless you like blue screens).

Epson drivers look like they were written in the 70s and whilst they do work are often not intuitive and lack many features (or hide them in obscure places).

Bother inkjets look like they were built in the 70s and always seem to have obvious features missing (eg. one client of mine had a business inkjet/fax machine - but the drivers did not support sending a fax from a PC - you had to do it manually at the printer).

Lexmark are ... well Lexmark. Junk printers, crappy, flaky drivers and ridiculously expensive consumables (and shame on Dell for rebadging them and selling them as Dell machines).

Having said all that at least Brother actually provide Linux drivers - I don't think any of the others do.